By IANS
New Delhi : As many as 209 institutes were offering technical courses without the approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex advisory body for promotion and development of technical education, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
In a written reply, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said that Maharashtra had the highest number (82) of institutes offering technical education without requisite permission from the AICTE, followed by Karnataka (20), Delhi (19), West Bengal (16) and Uttar Pradesh (15).
The AICTE was set up in November 1945 as a national-level apex advisory body to conduct surveys on facilities on technical education and to promote development in the country in a coordinated and integrated manner.
“AICTE has placed a list of approved technical institutions on its website (www.aicte.ernet.in), and also publishes notices from time to time in leading newspapers, cautioning all concerned to check the approval status of technical colleges before joining them,” Singh said.
In reply to another question, Singh said the AICTE should set up the “centres of excellence and centres of advanced studies” in view of the changing environment and global competitiveness in the field of technical education.
“AICTE should deal effectively with unauthorized institutions and approved colleges running unapproved programmes. It should also evolve mechanisms to provide exposure to the country’s technical colleges to the world-class institutions.”