Page 20 - EducationWorld September 2020

Education News

cation) in Institutions specialist at Mumbai University Senate
Unicef, recommends that budgetary member and professor at
provision should be made for rural the Thadomal Shahani En-
government schools for introducing gineering College, Mumbai.
WASH facilities. “The current provi- Unfortunately despite
sion of Rs.2,500 for 100 children is engineering colleges being
completely inadequate. It needs to be answerable to three com-
doubled,” she says. petent authorities — MU
However, with the economy and the director of technical
contracting by 24 percent in the first education (DTE) as also the
quarter of fiscal 2020-21, the Central All India Council for Techni-
and state governments are certain to cal Education (AICTE), the
slash — forget about the NEP 2020 apex governance body for
recommendation to increase — edu- technical education in the
cation outlays. In the circumstances, Mumbai University: only 13 compliant colleges country — salaries of fac-
the children and youth of India are ulty and staff are routinely
caught between a rock and hard of 1,00,000 students. Their annual delayed, and several other violations
place. If they start school, there’s the tuition fees aggregate an estimated of rules and regulations remain un-
danger of Covid-19 infection. If edu- Rs.1,295 crore with the faculty and checked. It’s also noteworthy that s.72
cation institutions remain shuttered, staff salaries bill totalling Rs.500 (10) of the Maharashtra Universities
tens of millions will suffer irrepa- crore. Moreover it’s pertinent to note, Act (2016) empowers MU to withdraw
rable loss of learning and may drop since engineering colleges collect their the affiliation of colleges violating af-
out of the education system. It’s an annual tuition and other fees upfront filiation norms. However when BUC-
unenviable dilemma for government in August/September, students’ fees TU raised the matter at the MU Senate
and parents. for the recently concluded academic committee meeting held on August 25,
Autar Nehru (Delhi) year were collected last year long be- apart from assuring quick resolution
fore the national Covid-19-induced of the matter, the university’s admin-
MAHARASHTRA lockdown began. istration failed to initiate any action
Surprisingly far from accepting
Faculty predicament their fault, college managements are against colleges defaulting on timely
payment of faculty salaries, a prime
blaming the state government’s social condition of affiliation.
ACULTY OF AN ESTIMATED 62 engi- welfare department. They claim the ven as the MU administration and
neering colleges in the Mum- state’s social welfare ministry owes Estate government’s DTE, which
Fbai metropolitan region have them “huge arrears” on account of directly supervises MU-affiliated col-
not received their salaries since end- scheduled tribe, scheduled caste and leges, have remained passive specta-
March when the BJP/NDA govern- other backward castes (OBC) students tors to the predicament of thousands
ment at the Centre decreed a national admitted under (ST/SC/ OBC) schol- of university and college faculty and
lockdown of industry, business and arship schemes. It is this delay in re- staff, the Delhi-based AICTE leader-
all education institutions. According lease of funds owed to them that has ship has sided with the managements
to data collected from 48 engineering resulted in their inability to pay fac- of affiliated colleges and upbraided the
colleges by the Bombay University and ulty salaries of the past five months, state government. In an April 11 noti-
College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU) they argue. fication issued to the principal secre-
which represents 4,000 teachers from However, BUCTU leaders don’t taries of state governments across the
350 colleges affiliated with Mumbai buy this explanation. “Under govern- country, it said that the council had
University (MU, estb.1857), only 13 ment and MU rules, they should have received “complaints from colleges
colleges have made full and regular set aside a third of their revenue to- about state governments not releas-
payment to teaching and non-teach- wards salaries last August/September. ing the fees of students studying in
ing staff during the past six months. Clearly they have not done so and are different engineering colleges under
The defaulters list also names colleges now trying to pin the blame on the the SC/ST scholarship schemes being
which haven’t paid faculty salaries for government. Moreover, most default- implemented through the social wel-
over 12 months. ing colleges have not been submitting fare departments of the concerned
The Mumbai metropolitan region their accounts to MU every quarter as state governments. Due to non-receipt
hosts 72 engineering colleges includ- mandated by affiliation rules, so their of funds from state governments, the
ing 70 private colleges affiliated with claims cannot be scrutinised by MU,” institutions are unable to pay the sala-
C
MU with an aggregate enrolment says h a n dra s h e k h a r K u l k a rn i, a ries of faculty and staff members”.
20 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020