Failure rate high in government polytechnics: CAG report

Chennai: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s audit of polytechnics in Tamil Nadu reveals that 43 per cent of the students who enrolled in government and its aided polytechnic colleges in the last three years failed to clear the exam.

Of the 18,300 students from the 2010-13-batch of government and its aided polytechnics who took the examination, only 50 per cent (9,161) passed the exam whereas the number was high as 64 per cent (10,224) for the 2008-11 batch.

When the auditors reported the trend, the commissioner of technical education attributed the poor pass percentage to high vacancies in teaching posts.
There are as many as 608 faculty posts (43 per cent) that lie vacant in government and aided polytechnic colleges. Of the sanctioned 32 principal posts, 18 were seen vacant (56 per cent) and 302 instructor posts (55 per cent) were not filled.

The Commissioner of Technical Education, in his reply, said that managements of government-aided colleges were to fill vacancies through employment exchanges with Commissioner’s approval and the posts of senior lecturers could not be filled as they were abolished on introduction of the revised pay scales in May 2010.

The auditors also pointed out that 10 government polytechnic colleges did not adhere to the teacher-student ratio (1:20) stipulated by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The shortfall ranged between 59 per cent in Dharmambal Womens’ polytechnic to 74 per cent in Tamil Nadu Polytechnic college in Madurai.