60,000 students’ future in jeopardy

Highlights

Uncertainty has not just confined to political or social fronts. The education sector- more precisely the engineering and technical education appears to be heading towards a crisis although some of the officials expressed the hope that things will improve. As the convener quota admissions have at last been put on track, focus now shifts to the owners’ quota. But there is still no clarity over the way to proceed for admissions under management throwing the careers of over 60,000 rankers in dark.

  • No clarity yet over Category B seats
  • Higher Edn Dept mulls over going last year’s way
  • Setback in convenor quota as well
  • Huge drop in registrations
BH Ramakrishna
Uncertainty has not just confined to political or social fronts. The education sector- more precisely the engineering and technical education appears to be heading towards a crisis although some of the officials expressed the hope that things will improve.
As the convener quota admissions have at last been put on track, focus now shifts to the owners’ quota. But there is still no clarity over the way to proceed for admissions under management throwing the careers of over 60,000 rankers in dark.
Two different verdicts of the High Court in a span of just two weeks have put the officials in a dilemma over the modus operandi. Justice Nooty Rammohana Rao has directed the officials to go ahead with a system which is similar to the one implemented last year. Accordingly, except 30 colleges, the remaining 655 private engineering colleges have released advertisements in newspapers and uploaded the application forms. This system was in fact mooted before last year and a comprehensive GO (No 74) was issued.
On the other hand, a bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Sen Gupta and Justice Rohini has directed the officials to adopt a system in consultation with the petitioners (around 30) and in a way, nullified the judgment of Justice Nooty Rammohana Rao.
It appears that the GO (No 66) issued last year, which facilitates the Higher Education Council to monitor the entire admission process through creation of web portal, could not be implemented for the second consecutive year.
The division bench’s order has opened up new issues and thrown the already started process out of gear. Officials of Higher Education Council have written to the Department of Higher Education for a way out. The DHE has sent the file to Law Ministry for its opinion and the legal department has forwarded it to the CM’s secretariat with its comments. Top sources said that in all probability, the system which has been followed hitherto will continue. That means, the admissions are likely to be done on the basis of GO 74 itself.
Govt is likely to approach the two-judge bench again seeking permission to implement the direction from next academic year i.e. 2014-15 due to paucity of time.
“It would be difficult to make an amendment the GO 66 at this juncture. We are running out of time since the extended deadline set by the apex court comes to end in another 20 days. Process cannot be started afresh now and finish off in three weeks” Prof P Jayaprakasha Rao, Chairman of the Higher Education Council told The Hans India.
But if the Court rejects the appeal of Council, the process shall have to be started. Jayaprakasha Rao hastened to add that they are still awaiting the decision of the government and said no final line has been taken as of now.
1.75 lakh seats may remain unfilled
Meanwhile, the convener quota process too show dismal picture. There is a drop of over 8,000 applicants for certificate verification under this quota compared to last year. While last year more than 1.38 lakh have attended for the verification, this year it was dropped to 130578.
Out of 2.17 lakh qualifiers, it appears not more than 1.80 lakh may finally join since more than 32,000 students have preferred to join in institutions outside the state due to delayed admissions, uncertainty over classes, drop in number of campus placements etc. A total of 3.46 lakh seats are available in all disciplines and it is expected that nearly 1.75 lakh seats may finally remain vacant this year.
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