Saturday, February 2, 2019

Half of all engg colleges may face seat cuts from AICTE

Many Colleges Fail To Meet Guidelines

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
02.02.2019

If the All India Council for Technical Education goes ahead with its warning of reducing seats in government technical institutions for faculty shortage and lapses in infrastructure, about half of the institutes in Tamil Nadu would face the cut.

While the state-run institutes meet the infrastructural standards set by AICTE, the government polytechnics as well as engineering colleges terribly fall short of faculty. In November last year AICTE had conducted inspections and issued notices to 18 out of 46 polytechnics and six out of ten engineering colleges for shortcomings. While AICTE might do a second round of fact checking, these institutions might be the first to face the music. In addition to these 24 institutions, there are about ten more polytechnic colleges that run the show with temporary staff.

Against this backdrop, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe had said the body would reduce 40,000 seats in government technical institutions across the country as penalty for the lapses. Though the exact number of seats that would be cut short in Tamil Nadu is yet to be worked out, sources in AICTE said that there would be a 10 to 20 % seat cut in institutions that fall short of norms.

“Based on the issues such as faculty shortage and absence of laboratories, we reduce 10% or 20% seats. This is to make the institutions recruit faculty members or invest in improving infrastructure. If the institutions comply, we will give them the seats back,” Anil Sahasrabudhe told TOI. He said AICTE was yet to work out number of seats to be cut short in Tamil Nadu.

In Coimbatore, of three government technical institutions, two have acute shortage of staff. Out of 127 faculty posts in government polytechnic college in Coimbatore, 60% of posts are managed with temporary faculty members who work in a consolidated pay scale of Rs15,000 per month, said sources. The scenario was worse in polytechnic in other parts of the state with temporary faculty constituting up to 80% of the total faculty strength. ``More than 1,050 polytechnic lecturer posts were in the state vacant. Currently among the 46 government polytechnic colleges in the state, after the recent retirements, around 1,300 lecturer posts would be vacant,’’ a college principal said.

Recruitments have been put on hold by Teachers Recruitment Board since 2017, allegedly after a complaints of irregularities in exams in the past, sources said.

Principal of GCE Bodinayakanur S Jayanthi, about 70% of the full-time positions for teaching faculty was only filled in the college. “But compared to the initial years, the number of faculty is better now,” she said. Jayanthi added that there was a shortage especially in the senior positions.

Inspite of the shortcomings, the government colleges are most sought after by students and almost all seats get filled due to infrastructure and affordable fee. “The seats are totally filled during the admissions, every year. For rural students, government colleges are the most sought-after because the fees is very less. In our college, per annum tuition fee is only around ₹7,000,” Jayanthi said.

However, some colleges do not get filled completely. For instance none of the six government institutions in Trichy region could get all the seats filled. There are less takers for engineering offered through Tamil medium, so such seats do not get filled fully, said a college principal.

Institution authorities said that they have sought the state government to fill all the vacant permanent posts. ``For now, AICTE should consider the fact that temporary staff we have roped in are as good as permanent staff and put on hold decision to cut seats,’’ said a principal.

With inputs from filed by Vishnu Swaroop, C R Balajee and Gokul R

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