Engineering colleges can’t force students to pay the fee during the lockdown

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in a note to all the colleges and institutes providing courses on engineering, management, architecture, and pharmacy has directed them not to force students to pay fees during the lockdown.

The AICTE has published a letter to these colleges on the instruction of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The letter declared that students couldn’t be forced to pay fees during the lockdown. It also includes instructions to pay the salaries of teachers and not to fire them.

A senior official of the Ministry of Human Resource Development announced. “Instructions have been given to take this action keeping in mind the interests of students and teachers during the lockdown.”

AICTE Secretary Prof. Rajiv Kumar has announced the suggested guidelines. All colleges and educational institutions have been guided to provide this information on their official website and notice board.

Students, teachers, and educational institutions have also been advised not to believe in any kind of fake news on social media, and trust the information available on the website of AICTE, UGC, and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Also, the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme will remain as usual.

Students who have not been able to do an internship due to the lockdown can make it online from home.

At the same time, the UGC committee is providing the report on online examination and semester examination. Based on the report, the AICTE will publish a new academic calendar for 2020 and new guidelines for the annual examination.

Source: LiveMint