Covid-19: Don’t sack faculty, AICTE tells colleges

CHENNAI: Amid the Covid-19 second wave and lockdown in several states, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Thursday asked the colleges not to insist on payment of full fees. It has urged colleges to collect the fees in three or four instalments till normalcy is restored.
It also directed the colleges not to sack faculty members in view of the pandemic.
While asking the colleges not to terminate faculty members, AICTE chairman asked the colleges to release the salary and other dues to the faculty monthly on time. He also said terminations, if any, made during the lockdown be withdrawn.
In a letter to all colleges, AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe said the council had received grievances from the faculty regarding termination of services and non-payment of salaries, besides the demand for payment of full fees.
He further gave a set of guidelines to the colleges to be followed in view of the outbreak of Covid-19 second wave.
All colleges and institutions are directed to display this information on their website and communicate it to the students through email, he said in the letter.
The guidelines from the AICTE have also asked all colleges under its control to relax attendance rule in light of lockdown and unavailability of good bandwidth in rural areas.
P Selvaraj, secretary, Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu said the colleges are already allowing students to pay fees in instalments.
"Due to the online classes, students studying even in major colleges are not paying the fees. We can collect the fees only after reopening the colleges. Despite the financial crisis, colleges are not sacking the faculty members," he said.