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AP Govt to curb misuse of fee scheme
The TDP government is reportedly contemplating measures to check misuse in implementing fee reimbursement scheme introduced by the previous YS Rajasekhar Reddy government of the Congress for engineering students with poor economic background.
Vijayawada: The TDP government is reportedly contemplating measures to check misuse in implementing fee reimbursement scheme introduced by the previous YS Rajasekhar Reddy government of the Congress for engineering students with poor economic background.
The issue came up for discussion at a three-day training programme held in KL University for party MLAs, MLCs, MPs and in-charges of Assembly constituencies. According to sources, a section of participants have even batted for scrapping of the scheme and diverting the funds for promotion of job skills among the students instead.
Highlights:
- YSR govt started fee reimbursement scheme for poor students of engineering
- Govt incurs `3,000 crore on fee reimbursement scheme
- The scheme is mired in allegations of misuse by college managements
It may be recalled that the government has been annually incurring Rs 3,000 crore on fee reimbursement scheme. It remains unchanged in spite of change of governments in view of involvement of 13 lakh beneficiaries enjoying the monetary benefits.
That is the reason why the TDP government remained soft towards the YSR’s brainchild while tinkering with the other schemes designed during the previous Congress regime.
The scheme is mired in allegations of misuse of funds by the managements of the engineering colleges with fudged figures in the registers with regard to attendance of students through fraudulent means. It is also alleged that the scheme breeds low quality of education as the college managements admits students regardless of merit only for the sake of fee reimbursement being ensured by government.
The managements are also charged with manipulating the annual fee reimbursement committee (AFRC) in favour of fixing the fee structure at their will. The AFRC is empowered to fix the fee basing on receipts and payments submitted by the college managements annually.
As a result, uniformity in fee structure is missing with fee ranges from Rs 35,000 to Rs 1.15 lakh depending on the manoeuvrability of the colleges. It proved to be a windfall for the college managements capable of lobbying with the government.
Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, TDP MLA from Rajahmundry, told The Hans India that there is an urgent need to plug the loopholes in the scheme and save public money. He said the government was considering, among others, to introduce a stipulation insisting on 75 per cent of attendance for any student to avail himself of fee reimbursement.
Basing on the feedback from the participants, the top brass in the government is favouring to focus on promotion of job skills instead of fee reimbursement. Is the fee reimbursement scheme scra- pped altogether? “No, the government only wants to streamline it and prevent misuse of funds,” clarified Chowdary.
The department of higher education reportedly issued a circular to the engineering colleges on Friday seeking to introduce skill development courses with a duration of two months for the under graduate B.Tech students. The circular asked the colleges to enroll students in the courses in civil, mechanical and computer sciences courses on payment of Rs 2,000 each as admission fee.
The move intends to equip the engineering students with job skills and stay relevant in the job market. A senior official closely associated with the engineering admissions for over two decades said quality in engineering education in the state is woefully low.
“Only five per cent of students are finding placements after passing out from colleges while the rest end up jobless for want of employability skills,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Of 1.35 lakh seats in all 315 colleges in the state, 60 per cent to 65 per cent are only getting filled every year and the pass percentage is failing to cross 40 per cent mark. Almost all the engineering colleges are surviving only with the fee reimbursement scheme.
Of 300-odd engineering colleges, at least 100 will be closed in the next one year, says a member of the private engineering college managements association from Anantapur district.
