Muslim minority engineering colleges have come forward to voluntarily reduce their sanctioned intake so as to meet the parameters fixed by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The JNTU is flooded with requests from different colleges, both minority and non-minority, to cut down their seats by 50,000. Some 40 colleges have even applied for closure, it is said.
What has triggered panic is the cancellation of affiliation by JNTU to 174 engineering colleges out of the existing 315. Among the disaffiliated colleges are 31 minority managed institutions. This is seen as a big setback to minority education. “Minority colleges are derecognised on minor deficiencies giving rise to the impression that they are targeted,” says Zafar Javeed, general secretary, Federation of Telangana and A.P Minority Educational Institutions.
Deficiencies in faculty and infrastructure have been existing in the engineering colleges, but managements tried to address them from time to time and the JNTU granted affiliation. This time round, the government has used strong-arm tactics in a bid to water down the fee reimbursement scheme, it is said.
The minority institutions want the government to calculate the faculty and infrastructure norms on the basis of students actually admitted in the preceding years instead of the sanctioned intake. This, along with the reduced seats, will enable the colleges in conforming to the AICTE norms in terms of faculty and infrastructure.
The minority institutions further want to be judged by the inspection report given by the expert committee constituted with representatives of the Indian Institute of Technology, BITS-Pilani and National Institute of Technology in the wake of Supreme Court order. There is said to be a huge difference in the report submitted by this expert committee and the one given by JNTU team in July.
Some of the deficiencies like shortage of computers, provision of e-books and e-journals have been addressed by most colleges. “In respect of my college the latest inspection report says there is no deficiency in the built up area and the teaching staff shortage is only 5 percent, ” says Khursheed Ahmed, chairman, Hashim College of Science and Technology, Pregnapur in Medak district.
The issue figured in the just concluded Assembly session and the government promised to hold a meeting with all the floor leaders and then with the stakeholders to sort out matter. But so for there is no indication of any such meeting taking place.
The Federation members have recently met the Deputy Chief Minister, Kadiam Srihari, and wanted the government to grant affiliation for the academic year 2015-16 by determining the stipulated norms on the basis of admitted intake (unit wise) rather than going by the sanctioned intake.
Several engineering colleges face cancellation of affiliation by JNTU owing to deficiencies in faculty and infrastructure
