Kar'ka unhappy with AICTE on raising the engg slab

Karnataka is disappointed with the decision taken by All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on raising the eligibility criteria for aggregate marks in Science subjects from 45% to 50% for engineering seats.

The state will approach the AICTE in order to cancell the revision of with regard to the eligibility slab for engineering seats. Principal secretary of the Higher Education Department Latha Krishna Rao will be meeting AICTE officials on 10 June 2011. The purpose of the meeting will be to present the Karnataka government’s view on the issue.

The revision has its own benefits, but simultaneously it would hit some of the colleges in the state that are already struggling with vacant seats. Also,this revision would deny a huge lot of students the chance to pursue an engineering course. The eligibility slab for for SC/ST students have also been raised to 45% from 40%. As a result of which, about 17,000 students have been denied CET rankings this year.

Higher education minister V S Acharya said that there were plans to set up 3 new engineering colleges in the state. But, now We will wait to hear from AICTE. This year, only 60,543 candidates are eligible for engineering seats in the state, against the 71,639 last year.