Confederation of Indian Industries recommendation draws criticism from academicians and parents.
Chennai: The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has recommended to the Centre that higher education institutions be allowed to charge their own fees instead of the fees fixed by state and central governments.
Even as private colleges welcomed the recommendation, academicians and parents criticised the CII for its “anti people” recommendation and said that it would amount to violation of the SC verdict.
The CII’s recommendation comes at a time when about 80,000 seats went vacant in the government’s single window counselling for private engineering colleges in the state. Several private colleges had no takers as students found it difficult to pay the fees, especially in the management quota.
Former Anna University vice chancellor Prof E. Balagurusamy recalled the Supreme Court’s judgement, which makes it mandatory for all the states to constitute a fee fixation committee. “I don’t think the Centre will accept the CII recommendation as it will be a contempt of the apex court’s verdict,” he said.
Pointing out that most students who pursue engineering in India hail from poor economic background, the senior academician asked that when students cannot afford the existing fee structure, how would they be able to take on the additional financial burden if the CII’s recommendation was accepted.
S. Sundarrajan, a parent, urged both the state and central governments not to accept the CII’s proposal as several parents had borrowed on a large scale to support their child’s technical education and this would make parents sell their hard earned assets to pay college fees.
( Source : dc )
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