The Left Democratic Front government will not sanction new self-financing colleges in the State, Minister for Education C. Ravindranath told the Assembly on Thursday.
The policy decision is part of the three-pronged strategy worked out by the government to save the sector and prevent the further mushrooming of self-financing educational institutions, Mr. Ravindranath said while replying to a calling attention by T.A. Ahammed Kabeer on the need to revamp the sector.
The government is also contemplating steps to ensure that the self-financing institutions and universities adhere to the norms of the UGC and AICTE, he said. A development plan is being envisaged on the basis of the report of a three-member committee, headed by K.K. Dinesh, which is studying the issues in the self-financing sector. The Minister said the government was concerned about the recent ‘painful incidents’ in the sector.
Earlier, Mr. Kabeer urged the government to prevent the mushrooming of engineering colleges and called for revamp of the higher education sector. A consensus had to be reached on the infrastructure of colleges and ways to use them effectively for society, he said.
