Hyderabad: The craze for studying at Indian Institutes of Technology is so much in the Telugu states that private colleges are raking in Rs 3,000 crore every year.
An admission into the B.Tech course at any IIT is considered a big achievement by students and parents. Private institutions are coming up with different programmes to cater to their needs. While many are giving integrated coaching during intermediate, when board syllabus and IIT lessons are taught in parallel every day, some institutions have included this even in their school curriculum from Class 6.
The fee being collected is mindboggling to say the least. A few private colleges are charging Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh per year for intermediate study as well as IIT coaching for two years.
Some parents are paying Rs 3.5 lakh per annum, accommodation included, to make sure their child cracks the Joint Entrance Examination. In schools with IIT foundation classes, the fee ranges from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh per annum.
Each year up to 1.5 lakh students appear for the JEE (Main) exam from the two states. Around 80 per cent are from private institutions that offer IIT coaching along with Intermediate classes.
Mr K. Venkataswamy, academic expert and Congress leader, said, “Taking advantage of parents’ keenness on IIT study for their children, colleges have made this into a pucca business model. The sad part is it has become a business with no accountability and taxation. Students are made to undergo a lot of stress — from 8 am to 6 pm for day scholars and for residential students it extends up to 10 pm — daily basis, which is not seen anywhere in the country.” he told this newspaper.
JEE top rankers look for loans
Parents of JEE-2016 rankers are exploring education loans to pay the increased fees in IITs and NITs being implemented from the current academic year.
The Union HRD ministry has given its nod to hike annual fees at IIT to Rs 2 lakh from the previous Rs 90,000 and at NITs to Rs 1.25 lakh from the previous Rs 70,000.
Mr Rajagopal Reddy, father of Sai Pranith Reddy, who bagged the all-India eighth rank in JEE (Advanced), said he would bank on education loan to fulfill his son’s dream of studying at IIT. Mr Reddy is a state-government employee working in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh.
“He is expected to get a seat in IIT (Mumbai). We are expecting the expenditure to be Rs 3 lakh for fees, accommodation and other expenses. For four years it will come to Rs 12 lakh and taking a loan is the best option,” he said.
Mr R. Mallikarjuna Rao, the father of R. Gayatri, all-India topper among women in JEE Main-2016, said that an education loan was on his mind.
Banks are also expecting a big jump in the number of loan seekers this year. “Every year 40 per cent of students joining IITs take study loans and this year we are expecting the number to increase by five to 10 per cent,” a SBI official said.
Also, for the first time the State Bank of India is setting up on the spot loan approval counters at IIT-Hyderabad and NIT-Warangal for the benefit of students.
Loans will be given without any collateral security for students joining these premier engineering institutions. The student just needs to fill a KYC form, submit his Aadhaar and PAN cards and take the approval letter, an official said.
