'We Need To Encourage Innovation And Entrepreneurship To Boost Technical Education'

Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on ensuring high quality education, new curriculum models and fostering the start-up and incubation culture

- Harshita Das

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is going to be held in couple of months. What is the level of competition this year?

JEE, which was initially an entrance test for IITs has been expanded to many other institutes, including NITs, in recent times, with many private and deemed universities using the JEE score as an admission criterion. So that way it is gradually emerging as the single largest entrance exam and therefore a high level competition exists. However, one flip side of this is that a large number of coaching classes are capitalising on its importance. To counter this coaching culture we are developing IIT-Professor Assisted Learning programme (IIT-PAL), which will be available on the SWAYAM PRABHA portal of AICTE, so that students from rural areas who cannot afford coaching classes can seek help and prepare.

AICTE has sent closure notices to 800 engineering colleges. What is the reason and way forward?