TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The government is the process of issuing guidelines to regulate activities of institutions for higher education in Goa, an exercise that aims at applying the brakes on ‘fly by night’ institutes mushrooming in the State.
“The regulations are being drafted and would take about a month before they are approved and comes into effect,” said Director of Higher Education Bhaskar Nayak when contacted by the Herald.
The process has been initiated in the wake of growing complaints against illegal institutes setting shop in Goa and offering higher education courses to students at exorbitant fees. The issue had come up in the just concluded Goa assembly session where the education ministry had assured to take steps to crack the whip on dubious institutions setting up institutes in Goa.
“The regulations will help to clamp down totally on such fake institutes and ensure that only genuine and recognised institutions function in Goa thereby imparting quality education,” Nayak said.
So far the department of Higher Education has cracked the whip on four such institutes during the last one year, the most recent being a police complaint at headquarters against one offering engineering courses through distance education learning. Nayak said, “No professional courses can be conducted through distance education learning and there are Supreme Court directives on this issue as well.”
Ironically, the Goa government has turned a blind eye to the use of government schools and institutions letting out their premises’ to such institutions to conduct their examinations.
The regulations, it is learnt, will ensure that such activities are also not permitted and heads of government institutions granting permissions for use of their premises by private institutes will have to face action.
Presently, the department of higher education has not been able to ascertain the actual number of such unauthorised institutions in Goa as students continue to register and procure certificates at a price.
A reply in the Goa Assembly divulged that around 72 teachers procured their MPhil through private un-recognised courses.
Sources say that this trend will continue until the government comes out with regulations and ensures that recognised courses through Goa University are introduced. “That these 72 teachers had to procure their MPhil from a private un-recognised institute is because the Goa University does not have MPhil programs in any subject except of Latin American studies,” said an educationist keenly monitoring the education system in Goa.
It is learnt that close to 6,000 students opt for distance education learning through IGNOU whose certifications are recognised. Sources say that anther 6,000 register with YCMOU.
