Understaffed engineering colleges see solace in new AICTE norm

Much to the consternation of faculty members, self-financing colleges with poor admissions in the region have found solace in the latest instruction from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for changing the teacher-student ratio from 1:15 to 1:20.

There are instances of private managements merging engineering institutions being run in common campuses, it is learnt.

According to a functionary of the management of a group of engineering institutions, the indications of the TNEA 2018 counselling are indeed negative for institutions with mediocre outlook.

But, spurt in attrition of engineering faculties from such institutions is not helpful for colleges undertaking fresh recruitment of teachers.

In fact, in very many colleges, the teacher-student ratio did not conform to the 1:15 norm earlier, and now these institutions are able to conform to the newly specified ratio, sources said.

Nevertheless, the line of thinking of the managements of engineering colleges has always been that 1:20 ratio was sufficient for teaching purposes, and that the 1:15 ratio would be suitable only when research activities receive importance.

According to a former principal of an engineering college in Tiruchi district, there will be no solution to the declining trend in engineering education until the focus is shifted from results to knowledge-acquisition.

There are also indications that a section of B.Ed. qualified teachers laid-off by college managements are knocking at the doors of schools for sustaining their teaching career, going by inquiries being made by the faculties with school managements, sources said.

A good number of self-financing engineering colleges in the region pay paltry salaries in the range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000.

It has also come to light that teachers of certain engineering institutions prefer to quit the job on their own volition since they have not been paid even the paltry salary for months.

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