A group of teachers has approached the Supreme Court against the All India Council for Technical Education’s (AICTE) decision to reduce the teacher-student ratio.
The teachers say the council’s decision is arbitrary and done to reduce the financial burden of colleges without considering its impact on the quality of education.
The AICTE, based on representations from college owners and the Kaw committee report, has permitted colleges to reduce their teacher-student ratio from 1:15 to 1:20. “Anna University has launched its annual inspection for affiliation process in colleges and is expected to follow the new norms. Already, colleges are terminating teachers,” said K.M. Karthik, president of Private Educational Institutions Employees Association (PEIEA) of Tamil Nadu.
The association’s petition points out that based on the faculty data provided by the AICTE on its website, as many as 1.78 lakh teachers could lose their jobs.
‘Workload has fallen’
“The National Board of Accreditation demands a teacher-student ratio of 1:15, but unless a 1:13 ratio is maintained, quality cannot be ensured,” he said.
P. Selvaraj, secretary of the Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges, however, justified the need to reduce faculty. “Workload for even heads of departments has fallen from eight hours earlier to six hours per week. For a faculty member, it is 10 hours. We have been asking for the reduction for many years as it is difficult to pay salary,” he said.
