Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the officials of the Higher Education Department not to exert pressure on students while trying to make up for the lost time in the academic year due to COVID-19. He suggested that the guidelines laid down by the Central government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) be followed.
Addressing a review meeting on the activities of the department on Monday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said emphasis should be laid on online classes and other means of teaching as social distance needed to be maintained to the extent possible to contain the spread of COVID-19.
He wanted the infrastructure in private universities to be augmented and steps taken to improve the standards of education.
Convener quota seats
At the same time, licensing regulations should be strictly followed. Fifty percent of the seats in private colleges should be under the convener quota and the rest in the college quota, the Chief Minister said and pointed out that the government would reimburse the fee to be paid by poor students for seats in the convener quota.
He insisted that private colleges should have the recognition of the National Board of Accreditation and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy further instructed the officials to provide all facilities required by the IIT-Tirupati, IISER-Tirupati, IIM-Visakhapatnam and NIT-Tadepalligudem and the Anantapur Central University.
New courses
He suggested that courses in polytechnics be integrated and new ones introduced in tune with the changing times. ‘Capacity building complexes’ should be set up for improving skills in every parliamentary constituency, he added.
Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Special Chief Secretary (higher education) Satish Chandra, Principal Secretary (school education) B. Rajasekhar, principal advisor to CM Ajeya Kallam and AP Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission chairman Justice V. Eswaraiah were among those present.
