The Hindu : Kerala News : Government violating AICTE norms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Government violating AICTE norms

By Biju Govind

KOZHIKODE, AUG. 2. Hundreds of students who had appeared for the entrance examinations will be deprived of obtaining admissions in the engineering colleges in Kerala because of the State Government's decision not to comply with the guidelines issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in January 2004.

According to official sources, the Government had decided to ignore two notifications of the AICTE, one relating to the relaxation in the qualification for admission to engineering colleges and the other providing exclusive reservation for children of workers in the Gulf countries.

The Principal Secretary (Higher Education Department), K. Mohandas, told The Hindu recently that the State Government and the universities had taken a ``conscious decision'' to stick to the existing norms of 50 per cent aggregate marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and 50 per cent marks separately for Mathematics in Plus Two examination as minimum qualification for admission to engineering degree programmes.

He said the Government did not want to alter the existing educational qualification norms since it would bring down the standards at the entry-level. Besides, the AICTE notification which had been challenged in the Madras High Court had given a verdict stating that the State Government could fix higher qualification for admission to engineering colleges, Mr. Mohandas said.

Notification

According to the AICTE notification, only a pass in 10+2 examination with Physics and Mathematics as compulsory subjects along with any one of the following subjects, Chemistry, Bio-technology, Computer Science and Biology is necessary for admission to the engineering degree courses. The rule has been made applicable to the B.Pharm. courses too.

The AICTE guidelines had amended the rules of admission to students under 15 per cent of supernumerary quota for Foreign Nationals/Persons of Indian Origin (PIO). As such, one-third of the 15 per cent of seats should be reserved for the Children of Indian Workers in the Gulf countries.

The State Governments and Union Territories have been asked to notify the tuition and other fees for candidates to be admitted under Foreign National/ Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) category. It has also stated that there should not be any NRI fees. The children of Indian Workers in the Gulf Countries shall be treated at par with resident citizens.

Government decision

Mr. Mohandas said that none of the engineering colleges, including Government colleges in the State, had requested the AICTE for inclusion of their institutions in the list of eligible institutions for admission of Foreign Nationals/ PIOs/ Children of Indian Workers in the Gulf countries. None of the engineering colleges had the infrastructure capability to increase the seats to accommodate students in this category.

The State Government, which is desperately trying to solve the fee-structure problem following the interim verdict of the Supreme Court, will find itself in another dilemma on account of the unfilled engineering seats.

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