Srinagar, Dec 14:  At a time when the government of India run DOEACC is celebrating its ‘15 glorious years’ of success for producing world-acclaimed IT professionals, the J&K government is yet to acknowledge the prestigious qualifications for job openings in the state.
 The disdainful attitude on the part of the government has been depriving some 2000 odd and growing IT professionals with DOEACC qualifications of their job prospects in J&K.
 Even though in the past hundreds of job openings came up in the government sector, the DOEACC qualifiers were never considered. Sources said even as an order was once issued by the government to consider the DOEACC qualifiers in this regard, the lacunae in the order rendered it useless.

The DOEACC
 Since November 1994, the DOEACC Society implements a joint scheme of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Department of Information Technology , government of India (GOI). The management and administration of the Society is overseen by Governing Council, under the chairmanship of the Minister of State, Communications & Information Technology, GoI. Members of the council consist of eminent academia from IITs, Universities, etc. and professionals from the industry.
 The objective of the scheme is to develop quality manpower in IT by utilizing the expertise available with the non-formal computer training institutes. Till now, the DOEACC has produced 3,38,508 professionals.

The programs, recognition
 The DOEACC courses fall in the category: O Level as equivalent to Foundation Level Course, A –Level Equivalent to Advanced Diploma in Computer Applications/PGDCA/BCA, B-Level equivalent MCA Level and the C Level.
 Official documents reveal the DOEACC 'O' and 'A' level qualifications are recognized for the purpose of employment by the GoI, vide notification Nos. F.18-23/92-TD. V/TS-IV dated 1st March 1995 and April 10, 1996 respectively.  'B' Level qualification has been recognized as equivalent to MCA. 
 Apart from the government jobs, leading computer software organizations in the private sector have recognized DOEACC qualifications. DOEACC 'A' level is considered equivalent to CAITs 'FE-SS' (Fundamental Information Technology Engineers Examination of Skill Standards) under the fundamental IT examination scheme of Japan as per the MoU signed between GOI and CAIT of Japan.

Eligible
 The GoI has made DOEACC qualifiers eligible for various posts in the IT sector as: O Level is eligible for Assistant Programmers , EDP Assistants, Web Designer, Lab Demonstrator; A LEVEL for Programmer, Web Administrators, Training Faculty, Web Content Developer and Trouble Shooter etc.
 The B level is eligible for System Analyst, Database Administrators,   Software Engineers, Senior Faculty, Network System Administrators. The DOEACC top, the C-level certification is for posts of Project Managers, IT Consultants,   R & D Scientists, System Specialists.

National trend
 Various state governments and the central government jobs adhere to the GoI guidelines for IT job openings making the DOEACC qualifiers eligible.
 Take the case of Union Railway ministry. Past year, in its jobs advertised for Kashmir, there was no discrimination against the DOEACC pass-outs.
 The Ministry of Railways in its notification No: RRB/J-S/EN-02/2008 dated 27-12-2008 for the post of Junior Engineer IT had fixed the eligibility criteria as PGDCA/BSC /BCA /DOEACC A/ or equivalent from recognized University or Institute.

Recruitment update
 As per the latest handout from the DOEACC, its qualifiers have been placed in the top notch government and private organizations like: NTPC, ONGC, BSNL, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, WIPRO, Microsoft and IBM.

The ‘orthodox’ JK
 The state government not only avoids to mention DOEACC in the eligibility criteria fixed for the jobs in the government departments, it most of the times rejects applications from the DOEACC candidates.
 The DOEACC qualifiers here said the state recruitment agencies have designed their application forms in a way that debars a DOEACC qualifier from mentioning his/her qualification.

The irony
 Even though Kashmir University has set up an Information Technology Department in the varsity and got a special programme approved from the Ministry of Information Technology for e-governance, sources said some officials in the IT Department in the KU have been opposing considering the DOEACC for any job openings, due to “ego problem” even though it happens to be the course recognized by the MIT.

The promise remains promise
 Two months ago, the Minister for IT, Agha Syed Roohullah had said eligibility criteria would soon be revamped and the DOEACC qualifications acknowledged as happens in other states. But the promise has remained a promise only.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 IST