Thiruvananthapuram: The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has lodged a complaint with the cyber crime cell of Delhi police against a fake circular being spread on the social media claiming that it had scrapped the 75 per cent attendance rule and was introducing vocational projects in the BE/BTech courses. The circular is misleading and mischievous, the AICTE said in a statement on its website.
The circular addressed to all directors/principals of AICTE-approved institutions claimed that it was aimed to address the declining employability of over 12 lakh engineering graduates. It said that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had decided to scrap the 75 per cent attendance rule with effect from January 18 due to the failure to update the syllabus on new technologies and advancements regularly.
The circular asked the students of BE/BTech or equivalent programme to submit a vocational project related to their hobby or subject in each semester for a ‘hands-on’ experience to develop employability in various sectors of our economy. The failure to submit the vocational projects in each semester and three mandatory internships would result in refusal to issue the equivalent degree, the circular claimed.
It carried the name and a fake signature of Prof G.K. Gokhale, adviser, policy and academic planning bureau of AICTE. But there is no adviser by that name.
Moreover, the 75 per cent attendance rule is not uniform across the country. Various universities that award BE or BTech degrees and affiliate colleges in various states have different attendance rules.
