Vijayawada: The state government’s technical education officials will start focusing on the amenities in engineering colleges after many of them reported poor admissions.
The state has about 450 engineering colleges with 2 lakh seats, of which 60 per cent were filled this year. Of these, 133 colleges reported single-digit admissions.
Officials are looking into why these colleges were not preferred. One view is that poor amenities and lack of good faculty might have deterred students.
Officials are collecting information on amenities like classrooms, ventilation, area shown for attaining permission to run the college and the area being actually utilised, the presence of a sports ground and sanitary conditions in and around the college.
In addition, they are also checking if the faculty is adequate in these colleges and whether or not the professional qualifications of the faculty are as per records.
Officials will check the availability and use of laboratories and libraries.
Officials will also check out allegations that many colleges were not organising classes.
Mr G.S. Panda Das, technical education special commissioner said, “We will conduct special drives, collect data and put it up on our website for the benefit of the students.”
He said that the issue of quality of education would be discussed with the State Level Quality Assurance Coordination Committee.
Mr Das said, “We are not the affiliation authority, so we will have to discuss the issue with the State Level Quality Assurance Coordination Committee and take measures for quality.
Private college managements complained that the poor quality was the result of delay in fee reimbursement. Colleges that are providing qualitative education are not being encouraged, they said.
Adi Sankara College of Engineering and Technology chairman V. Penchalaiah said the engineering education sector had been damaged by government policies and the attitude of a few college managements.
He said that except for the students whose fee was being reimbursed, those who were capable of paying the fee themselves were migrating to better colleges in other states.
“How can the government expect quality education by paying Rs 35,000 per student as fee reimbursement,” he asked.
He alleged that a few colleges were giving admission to students who aren’t interested in fee reimbursement by offering discounts. He demanded that the fee reimbursement should be hiked.
