Polytechnic Colleges asked not to conduct coaching classes

Rift between Colleges, Dept of Technical Education mounting

The Karnataka Government Polytechnic College (KPT) in Mangalore as well as the other polytechnic colleges across the State which were conducting coaching classes for the students seeking Lateral Entry for II year Bachelor of Engineering, will no more be allowed to conduct the coaching classes, which used to benefit the students as well as the colleges.

During a meeting held recently in Bangalore, the Directorate of Technical Education, Bangalore has asked all the polytechnic colleges in the State not to conduct extra coaching classes for those students writing Lateral Entry CET from this year onwards.

Reason

Irregularities committed by one of the city based Polytechnic colleges in conducting coaching classes is said to be the reason behind the Directorate’s decision. One of the Polytechnic colleges which was engaged in offering extra coaching, reportedly had a tie-up with a private coaching centre and were making a few quick bucks. Sources said that, the College was collecting Rs 3,500 from each student enrolling for the classes, while on record it maintained that the fee collected was only Rs 1,500 from each student.

Drawn by the coaching centre’s popularity over 500 students from across the State joined for the coaching class in the above said college and the college authorities made hay when sun shone, sharing the profits with the private coaching centre with whom the college had a secret MoU.

Inquiry

A television channel had exposed this fraud during last May and supposedly the Directorate of Technical Education carried out an inquiry on the same. As a result, an order has been passed to all the government, aided, unaided as well as the private colleges to stop the coaching centres.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, KPT Principal Major B Vijaya Kumar said that their institute began to offer extra coaching classes to the students under the Centre for Continuing Technical Education in Karnataka (CCTEK) cell of the College, which is entitled to offer special trainings to the students and the major profit obtained was used for the infrastructure development of the college.

“For the first two years we offered coaching for mathematics and science subjects and during the last two years we also began to offer coaching for technical subjects. Several students from the college as well as from outside used to attend the crash course (for one month during March/April) which was quite popular among the students. The coaching was provided for 100 hours and the fee was Rs 2,500 for outsiders while it was Rs 2,000 for the students from the college, he informed.

During 2010-11 as many as 60 students registered for the coaching and the turnover was Rs 1,25,300 and the profit was nearly Rs 40,000. During the year 2011-12, over 100 students registered and the annual turn over was Rs 2,35,550 and the profit was Rs 60,000. Out of the total profit 25 percent was sent to the Technical Education Department, 10 percent was reserved for other purposes and remaining 65 percent was used for the infrastructure development of the college. “With receiving strict order from the Directorate we would not conduct coaching classes henceforth,” he said.

Double standard

Sources say that the Department remained tight-lipped as long as its share was given. When the arregularities were exposed, the department suddenly changed its stand and started blaming the colleges. This double standard of the Department seems to have not gone well with the colleges.