Engg seat allotment: HC asks AICTE to file latest regulations

The Kerala High Court on Friday directed All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to submit the latest regulations that are being used as the basis of conducting entrance admissions. 

Considering a batch of petitions challenging the addition of plus two marks to entrance test rank to decide merit for engineering seats, Justice Antony Dominic asked AICTE standing counsel S Krishnamoorthy to submit a copy of the latest regulations so as to continue hearing on the petitions on Monday. 

The court's direction came after the AICTE counsel challenged the argument of by K Ramakumar, the counsel of petitioners, that the council's regulations rule against adding plus two marks. The AICTE counsel pointed out to the court that the regulations cited by the petitioners belong to 2003, whereas the council's latest regulations came out in 2010-11 and many provisions are different. 

The main question being raised by the petitioners before the court is whether the State has the power to deviate from AICTE norms, the petitioners' lawyer stated. If the court finds out that State doesn't have the power, there is no need to argue the case further, Ramakumar submitted. 

VC meet highlights higher education lacunae

There is a stark difference between the hype around higher education and the real picture as most of the universities in India are facing challenges of shortage of quality teachers, lack of funds, obsolete curriculum and wrong government policies, vice chancellors of various universities pointed out at the two-day 'East Zone Vice Chancellors' Conference' that began at KIIT University here on Friday. Some 30 vice chancellors from universities of eastern India participated in the conference, organised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

Expressing concern about higher education, AIU president P T Chande said, "Around 50% posts are vacant in universities and colleges across the country, while a large number of teachers are quitting jobs due to faulty government policies. Most of the universities lack quality teachers, thanks to the faulty selection procedures."

Pointing out the limitations of selection procedures of teachers like NET (National Eligibility Test) and SAT, Chande said, "Teachers are not a manufacturing community and it involves interaction between students and teachers for a better teaching-learning process. NET and SAT only tests the brilliance of candidates but their communication abilities should also be tested."

The vice chancellors further alleged that the Centre is showing a step-motherly attitude towards state universities and not providing adequate funds. They also demanded the withdrawal of clause 12B in the UGC Act that prescribes certain standards for universities for being eligible for funds. "There are a large number of new universities facing some teething troubles. The UGC should provide a timeframe so that they can prepare themselves as per the norms. We cannot kill the universities without allowing them to grow," Chande said.

Raising question over the functioning of different regulatory bodies like the UGC, the AICTE and the MCI, Chande pointed out, "These bodies are stifling the growth of education under the guise of regulating institutions without giving functional freedom."

Also raising questions about the benefits of the proposed foreign university bill, Chande said, "Foreign university bill is a serious challenge for India's higher education sector. We are indirectly inviting foreigners to invade our county intellectually. Before allowing them to open their shops here we must improve the quality of our institutes so that we can compete with them."

Inaugurating the conference, state higher education minister Badri Narayan Patra said, "I hope the two-day deliberation will come out with a good number of recommendations for the government to work upon. The input of academicians is required more than that of politicians to form successful policies in the education sector."

UGC member and founder of KIIT University, Achyuta Samanta said, "It is a platform to discuss issues of higher education and the problems faced by various universities. The meeting will also play a catalytic role in forming policies for higher education."

Research and Markets: Indian Education Industry, Q3 2011

The growth in the personal disposable income of the Indians, growing contribution of the services sector to India's GDP thereby requiring greater number of qualified youths and the increasing thrust of the GoI to improve the country's educational system and eventually the literacy rates has resulted in manifold growth of the Indian Educational sector since the last decade. Correspondingly, the country's literacy rate has improved from 64.8% during 2001 to 74% as per the Census 2011. With the growing penetration of educational concepts such as Pre-school, Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in schools etc the market size of the Indian Education industry aggregated US$66.6 bn during FY11. Importantly, over the years, the role of private sector in education has increased with the setting-up of institutes especially in the K-12 & Higher education segment. Even, the GoI has emphasised on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in education so as to expand the reach and provide quality education to students in small towns & villages.

CARE Research's report on The Indian Education Industry' seeks to answer queries such as: What will be the market size of the Indian education industry by FY15? Which educational segment, whether Pre-school, K-12 or ICT will be the revenue driver for the sector? What will be the penetration level of Pre-schools, K-12, ICT & Higher education in India by FY15?

Soda in Rajasthan on its way to become India's first IT-enabled village

When Chavvi Rajawat tried to bring water to her parched village, she hit the bureaucratic wall of inefficiency. 

The young, jeans-clad sarpanch of Soda village in Rajasthan was told that she had already spent more than the funds allocated to her, and that the fresh water reservoir she wanted to construct was now out of the question. 

But like any trained equestrian, Rajawat was not willing to give her ground. So she decided to raise the funds on her own. 

Family and friends chipped in and Rajawat, who at 30 became India's youngest sarpanch and the only one holding an MBA degree, managed to collect Rs 20 lakh. But this was just a drop in the Rs 3.5 crore she needed to construct the reservoir. 

That's when Rajawat asked the district headquarters in Tonk to provide a detailed account of the funds sanctioned to her village. 

The file showed a calculation error. The error was fixed. But the episode left Rajawat disturbed over the lack oftransparency and accountability that ails the administration. Keen to make a change, Rajawat decided to e-enable her village panchayat. 

Soda village has now tied up with German software vendor SAP to develop an internet and intranet portal, complete with a technology education lab. The portal would give Soda's 10,000 inhabitants 24x7 accessibility to the funds sanctioned for the village. 

It would also offer citizen services such as birth and death certificates, besides posting land records online. "A fire in Tonk had destroyed land records of many villages," says Rajawat. "This ERP (enterprise resource planning) application will have an electronic database, and store all land records in servers." 

Rajawat, who represented India at a recent UN poverty summit, says she sees computerization lifting the veil of illiteracy from her village. 

"Most youth in the village are unemployed, as they don't have higher education due to absence of a college. We want to change that with e-education," says she. 

After taking over as sarpanch in February, Rajawat launched a website, www.soda-india.com, where she regularly posts funds allocated for projects such as a village bank, community centre for weddings and cataract surgery for the needy. 

Though panchayats in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, Ranchi in Jharkhand and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh have websites, they maintain only basic information like the history of the village, names of the sarpanch and other sabha members, and basic demographics of the village. 

Soda and SAP plan to link the portal with the state government's websites by the year-end, making Soda the first fully computerized Panchayat in India. 

SAP's India managing director Peter Gartnerberg says he wants to take the initiative forward to his ancestral village in Tarn Taran in Punjab. "Panchayats is a large untapped business for us. We will take it to Punjab and other states in India once Soda gets its application portal and IT lab this year," says Gartenberg. 

Gartneberg's grandfather lived in Tarn Taran before migrating to the US decades ago. 

That Tonk borders Ajmer, a Lok Sabha constituency represented by minister of state for I-T and communications Sachin Pilot, is another plus. 

Ajmer's Kanpura district was showcased by India to US President Barack Obama as the model IT district during his visit last year. Pilot is overseeing a programme to connect all 600,000 panchayats in the country with broadband, and eventually, with citizen e-applications. 

The Central government last year sanctioned Rs 4,500 crore for the e-panchayat project. But it does not seek to offer visibility into fund allocation and project monitoring as envisaged by Rajawat.

Australia calling

IDP Education India, a student placement company is organising an education fair for the students in the city aspiring to pursue higher education in Australia. Scheduled to take place at Park Hotel� on Saturday, September 3, the fair will bring together prominent Australian universities and educational institutes under one roof.

Speaking about the event, Harmeet Pental, regional director South Asia, IDP Education said, “IDP seeks to provide an all-inclusive platform to provide details to the aspiring students. We offer the students an opportunity to interact with the university representatives directly and help facilitate exchange of information. We intend to ensure that the future of the students is in safe hands.”

The fair will help students get application fee waiver and the universities are also offering scholarships to qualified students at the venue.

�The students would also get on-spot offers.

The organisers have requested the students to come with original and photocopies of their educational certificates. 34 Australian institutions are participating in the fair that is planned to take place between 11 am and 4 pm.

It will be a free platform for all students to gauge their prospects of studying at Australia. Pental added, “We have considerable experience of associating with Australian universities. The situation in the country has significantly improved and recently, the visa rules have been relaxed, specially for Indian students looking to join an Australian university.”

Sibal, Montek differ on foreign education bill

Considered reformists in theManmohan Singh government, HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia are not on the same side when it comes to Foreign Education Providers Billand a slew of other educational legislations being planned by the HRD ministry. 

Ahluwalia's criticism has come out in the latest WikiLeaks disclosures. After a lot of initial enthusiasm, the HRD ministry is going slow on Foreign Education Providers Bill as a fresh round of discussion has begun. 

A cable from the US embassy in Delhi shows Ahluwalia expressing reservations about the Bill to William Burns, US under secretary of state for political affairs. "Hazarding that he was perhaps talking out of turn, Ahluwalia asserted that he was not very happy with the Foreign University Bill and did not think that legislative changes were needed (Note: The draft Bill would allow foreign campuses in India. End note.) To move forward, Ahluwalia suggested that a new bilateral forum identify 8-9 different educational collaboration models and then determine where the US and Indian interest was strongest," the cable dated June 6, 2009 says. The cable was released on August 26. 

Ahluwalia also told Burns that his impression about Sibal is that he "wanted to rewrite the bilateral agenda of education to focus on three areas: expansion, inclusion and excellence". "The deputy chairman said that expansion and inclusion were already being implemented, but that raising the quality of education was going to be the 'tough part'. At least part of the solution lie in promoting Indian universities, which offer a global experience through some use of visiting faculty, joint programmes, or "twinning". (Note: Ahluwalia has earlier described this to American officials as a relationship between an Indian and American university where students from either institution spend one year at each university) 

In the same cable, Ahluwalia while advocating a "separate bilateral forum on education" told Burns that he "had been in contact with US faculty of Indian origin, who are interested in pursuing new types of collaboration with Indian universities". 

But, Ahluwalia cautioned, there is a lack of clarity about what would be best for the US and Indian universities among a "multiplicity of models". He also suggested that to "move forward, a new bilateral forum identify 8-9 different educational collaboration models and then determine where US and Indian interest was strongest. His impression was that American universities do not want to set up entire campuses, but rather facilities where they could take 30-40 students for a semester." 

The cable quotes Burns observing that some US universities in recent years have set up in different countries, but Ahluwalia replied that such models would not work in India because they are funded by the host country, which would be perceived in India as preferential to the foreign university. Ahluwalia categorically stated that the "Dubai model" would not work.

Admissions case: HC relief for Palakkad college

The Kerala high court issued a stay on AICTE's ( All India Council for Technical Education) decision to not allow admissions to Palakkad Institute of Science and Technology after the chairman of the trust that runs the college was chargesheeted by CBI for bribing a regional director of All India Council for Technical Education. 

Considering a petition by Kollengode Educational and Charitable Trust, which runs the college, Justice Antony Dominic directed AICTE to allow admissions to continue at the college. 

S Krishnamurthy, standing council for All India Council for Technical Education, submitted to the court that the decision by an appellate authority on the same issue is expected within two days. Following this, the court ruled that admissions can continue but the order wouldn't stand in the way of the appellate authority's decision. 

The approval for admissions was withdrawn by All India Council for Technical Education following a policy decision in February this year to withdraw approval for colleges chargesheeted by CBI. 

In January last year, CBI had filed chargesheets against three self-financing engineering colleges in Kerala after it was found that they bribed officials of All Indias Council for Technical Education to obtain approval for running colleges even though necessary infrastructure was lacking. 

The colleges named by CBI were Palakkad Institute of Science and Technology, IQRA Education and Charitable Trust, and Thejus Engineering College.