In a major jolt for the state’s technical education department, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to halve intake capacity of seven polytechnic colleges in Jammu and Kashmir from the next academic session.
The decision was taken during a preliminary meeting convened by the scrutiny committee of AICTE with the principals of the polytechnic colleges here.
An official said the meeting was convened in two phases-one on last week of October and second meeting was convened in mid-November.
“The AICCTE has decided to reduce the intake capacity of seven new polytechnic colleges by 50 percent for not having adequate faculty in the institutes,” an official said, adding the reduction in intake capacity of students will apply from academic session beginning July 2019.
18 new government polytechnic colleges were approved under centrally sponsored scheme – Coordinated Action on Skill Development.
Of these 18 colleges, one college each is run by Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) and Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) while 16 are functioning under technical education department.
The technical education department was allowed by AICTE to start the courses in these colleges from rented buildings for a period two years with a condition that these institutes be shifted to permanent campuses within two years.
Joint director polytechnic education also confirmed that preliminary meetings were held by scrutiny committee of AICTE.
According to the AICTE norms if the colleges didn’t move into permanent campuses by the third year their intake capacity of admissions would be reduced by 50 percent.
Also, in case any of these colleges continue to function from rented accommodations for more than four years, they are placed under ‘No Admission’ category by AICTE.
“But now the seven polytechnic colleges shifted to permanent campuses will again be affected for not having adequate faculty positions,” the official said.
He said each polytechnic college has two branches of various courses and each department nine faculty positions.
“The department had submitted a proposal to government for creation of around 720 posts but it has not been yet approved which will now adversely affect polytechnic colleges as AICTE has decided to reduce the intake capacity,” the official said, adding that dearth of teaching faculty positions in the technical education institutes was a cause of worry.
“Due to the non-availability of posts we are hiring academic arrangements on contract basis.”
The AICTE decision comes at a time when enrollment in polytechnic institutes has already come down from 64.22 percent in 2014 to 35.77 percent in 2018.
Against the intake capacity of 3505 students in government polytechnics only 2364 seats were filled in 2014, while in 2018 only 1575 students approached for admission in these institutes.
Director technical education department had submitted a proposal to the administrative department seeking suspension of the excising admission process which currently happens through JK Board of professional entrance examination (BOPEE).
“In this regard the directorate made a memorandum and prepared a detailed note for SAC around a month ago. But there has not been any development in this regard,” said Muhammad Shafi Bhat, joint director polytechnic colleges.
He said the directorate is pressing for open admission in order to increase the enrollment of students in the institutes.
“If admission process is left to the department, we can go for various measures including enrollment drives in localities and make people aware about the courses offered in these colleges,” Bhat said.