Tuesday, 22 December 2015

“Mann Ki Baat: AICTE must Deny Approvals to Erring and Fraud Engineering Colleges” ―Professor M.S.Rao









“We would like to bring it down to between 10 lakh and 11 lakh (one million and 1.1 million) from a little over 16.7 lakh now. The capacity should come down for the betterment of all—students, education providers and employer.” — Dr. Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education.


India’s technical education regulator, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) denies approval to colleges due to various reasons including poor infrastructure, shortage of faculty, poor academic performance and the number of grievances.  It takes serious note of engineering colleges that inflate number of faculty on their rolls to meet the AICTE requirements and guidelines by inviting cameo faculty at the time of inspections. It is observed that most colleges bring in dummy faculty at the time of AICTE, JNTU and OU inspections to show them. At times these colleges cheat the dummy faculty also by not paying them the honorarium they have committed to pay for the day of inspection. Of course, that is a different story. Second, the colleges hire senior professors and PhD holders at the time of inspections to fool the visiting inspection teams. If the college has another college, it takes faculty on loan to show on records like the goods are taken on hand loan from others. For instance, if the educational group has more number of colleges, they reshuffle the faculty and senior professors to the college for which the AICTE, JNTU and OU teams visit. The main intention is to fool them that these colleges have adequate number of faculty, professors and PhD holders. The AICTE, JNTU and OU have teams led by intellectuals who are aware of such notorious games played by the owners of private engineering colleges in India. Some of the owners of these colleges are over smart to pay money and get their colleges ranked to brand themselves. Of course, people are smart enough and the regulating bodies are intelligent enough to identify such fake ranks and games. In this way, the owners of private engineering colleges not only try to fool the AICTE and the universities they are affiliated but also cheat the students. Students often take admission into these colleges based on their ranks and figures shown on the brochures. After taking admission into the colleges, students realize that they got cheated by these colleges as they don’t have adequate infrastructure and efficient faculty, laboratories and libraries. Since there is no way out, students suffer silently until they complete their education. If students raise their grievances in their campus, they will not get their qualifications since the management instructs the faculty to fail the students in the internal and laboratory exams.  

Both students and faculty should not suffer silently. They must voice their grievances. They can approach AICTE directly to redress their grievances which will be attended to earnestly. Here is the link to email their grievances aictevigilance@gmail.com.  

Because of these reasons, AICTE denied approvals to many colleges. It is a step in the right direction because there must be quality education to students, not quantity. There is no sense in giving paper degrees and qualifications to students when they are not employable and deployable in the corporate world. Research shows that currently most students who pass out of engineering and other streams don’t have adequate skills and abilities leading to unemployability. Additionally, the AICTE chairman, Anil Sahasrabudhe[1] had stated that only about 30% of engineering graduates were deemed employable by recruiters.


Reasons for Closure of Colleges

It is unfortunate that toddy traders, financiers, real estate brokers and criminals have become education players to make money in India.  AICTE Chairman commented[2]: AICTE will ensure that students are not at the receiving end. We shall also ensure that educational lands or properties are not converted into a real estate business by education players.

While this year AICTE has reported to have received about 1,422 applications seeking permission to shut down the engineering departments or courses where about 556 engineering courses or departments have closed down this year alone. The main reason[3] behind the shutdown of the engineering departments or courses was said to be the lack of proper infrastructure of this schools and inability of students of these colleges to get a jobs in firms due to inadequacy of employable skills.


Surprise Inspections in Telangana State

The TRS government in Telangana tried to streamline the present system, and to check irregularities, frauds, and corruption in private pharmacy, medical, engineering colleges. It conducted surprise inspections to set the education system right. AICTE and affiliated universities must conduct surprise inspections without prior intimation to these colleges to check these irregularities. Only the owners who are strong will survive and the rest will perish paving the way for encouraging good educational institutions in India. It helps faculty enjoy professional ambience and get their salaries on time. It helps students have adequate facilities to acquire both education and knowledge. It is observed that some colleges cheat faculty by not paying their salaries to the leaving faculty. Worse, these colleges don’t pay salaries for months and blackmail the leaving faculty by various means. Hence, AICTE and affiliated must check these irregularities to create a healthy education system in India.


Conclusion

AICTE is the apex regulatory body for technical education in India. It must ruthlessly close down the fraud colleges that maintain fake list of faculty and indulging in irregularities.  It must organize surprise inspections to such colleges to derecognize them. It must identify the erring colleges that violate the norms and close them.

To conclude, I strongly recommend the steps taken by AICTE Chairman to deny approval to educational institutions that don’t comply with their guidelines. There are plenty of engineering colleges in the state of Telangana without quality education. Presently it has become a problem of plenty. It is time to emphasize on quality in educational institutions in India, not quantity for the betterment of all—students, education providers and employers.  Jai Hind!


“All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.” — Scott Alexander

References


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Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants India
Recipient of 10th International Prestigious Sardar Patel Award―2015
21 Success Sutras for Leaders: Top 10 Leadership Books of the Year (San Diego University) Amazon URL: http://www.amazon.com/21-Success-Sutras-Leaders-ebook/dp/B00AK98ELI






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3 comments:

  1. A thought provoking article to create a healthy education system in India. AICTE is doing lots of activities under the leadership of its chairman, Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe in spite of several constraints. There must be collective approach from all stakeholders.

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  2. You are a true leader showing the way for others to redress their grievances. Great initiative!

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  3. It is tough to manage various states with different political parties and different governments across India. AICTE is trying its level best to check fraud colleges. A few corrupt colleges find out the loopholes and exploit them. AICTE must conduct sudden inspections on erring colleges across India and close them, if found with corruption and malpractices. AICTE must not bow down to political parties and compulsions. Only then, we will be able to have healthy education in India.

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