At 37 polytechnics, no student attended DTE's live online classes

The Department of Technical Education (DTE) is likely to take action against principals and staff of 68 government, aided and unaided polytechnics across Karnataka for failing to ensure adequate student participation in its Online Interactive Sessions (OIS).

The DTE has already served show-cause notices on principals, asking them to reply within 10 days why they disobeyed its directions. The department had roped in experts  to conduct the sessions  between August 7 and 13, 2017,  for the benefit of students, especially in rural and semi-urban areas where colleges are short of qualified teachers.  It set up a studio in Bengaluru, where experts conducted the classes that were live-streamed on Youtube.  

Despite a prior circular, the principals of 68 colleges failed to ensure the minimum student attendance of 50%. At 37 colleges, not a single  student attended the session. The attendance in six colleges was just 14.29% while the remaining 25  polytechnics saw between 16% and 44% students attending the session.  

"We wrote letters, sent e-mails and contacted the principals  by phone. But many of them didn't bother to inform students about the OIS," H U Talawar, Director, DTE, told DH. He warned that principals who failed to implement the circular could be transferred or their increments and promotions could be withheld.  

Talwar attributed the poor response from principals and teachers to their "negligence". "They didn't bother to check the DTE website and understand the new initiative," he said.  The department had suggested that principals use smart classrooms to improve student participation. It also recommended the  use of laptops and smartphones by students.