Learn the hard way

Private institutes flourish not due to the quality of education, but often because they simply mislead students and charge exorbitant fees

Pallavi Chandra Delhi

This year, Delhi University (DU) will admit only 35,000 students to its undergraduate courses, a sharp drop of 8,000 compared with 43,000 last year. This is bound to put pressure on students who have passed their +2 board exams with good but not exceptional marks, as they now struggle to meet the eligibility criteria for admission.

A faculty member of the Economics department at Kamala Nehru College says, “The minimum marks required for admission to the Economics Honours course will go up by two per cent this year. So with other courses.”  This means that of the 1,50,000 students who passed the +2 board exams this year, 1,15,000 will have no option but to join other (than DU) educational institutions or private colleges.

“If I don't get into a DU college, I'll go for a professional course from Amity University. The only thing that worries me and my parents is the fees,” says Radhika Virani, one of many students seeking admission. Private colleges in Delhi, though generous with their academic eligibility criteria, charge steep fees for admission and courses. A large number of students who could not make it to the DU final list will try getting into them. Naturally, students from well-off families are better placed to gain admission.

“I had to break all my fixed deposits and apply for a loan for my daughter's education, as she had no other option but to go to Jaypee Institute of Technology to study engineering,” says Kiran Verma, who works in a government organisation. Nirmal Devi, another government employee and a widow, said, “I didn't allow my daughter to take admission in Amity University because they were asking for Rs 1,20,000 as a first instalment alone; if she does not get 50 per cent in her undergraduate results, they will cancel the admission and forfeit the amount. It's difficult for me to take such a risk.”

But how credible are these private institutions? Students who seek admission in them often jeopardize their future. Tarun Sharma narrates his horror story: “My parents applied for a loan of Rs 5,00,000 for my fees at a private college in Gurgaon. As I entered the premises, I was shocked to discover that it was a fake institute and there were no teachers around. Later, the institute was sealed. I had nowhere to go. I had to take up a job at a call centre to pay off the loan. Now, I have no educational qualifications and sometimes this really gets me depressed.”

Some private institutes are not even affiliated to the University Grants Commission (UGC). Nor do they have decent infrastructure or competent and qualified teachers. Nitisha Gaur, a third semester student of MBA at Amity University, reveals: “Books are only provided 10 days before exams. We had no teacher for Logistics in our third semester. We didn't have teachers for most of our other subjects in the second and third semesters.” She also says that guest lectures are held late at night between 6:30 to 9:30pm, making it difficult for female students to attend the classes.

Manisha Bhatia, a former student of Jagannath Institute of Management Sciences (JIMS), says, “When we joined, we were told by the Institute that we would get a regular college degree. But when we graduated, we only got a DLP (Distance Learning Programme) certificate. We protested, but the management didn't pay any attention.”