All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) has condemned the State Government proposal on increasing fees under government quota for engineering courses by 10% and subsequent 10% hike every year.
In a press release here, district vice-president of AIDSO Shashikala Meti has said that as per media reports, in the meeting with the State Government, the managements of private engineering colleges proposed to increase the fee for engineering courses under KCET from Rs.65,300 to Rs.71,896 and under COMED-K from Rs.1,43,748 to Rs.1,58,123.
It has also been proposed to hike the fee under additional fee category under KCET from Rs.58,806 to Rs.65,686 and under COMED-K from Rs.2,01,960 to Rs.2,22,156. This apart, it has also been proposed to hike the fee structure by 10% every year. These developments are nothing but a great shock to poor meritorious students who wanted to pursue engineering studies.
AIDSO will strongly condemn any such proposal as it will be an unscientific way of hiking fee structure at a time when members of the poor middle class are just recovering from the onslaught of the COVID-19-induced lockdown, which, consequently, led to economic slowdown. Already, lakhs of students from these families have been deprived of education due to financial constraints and this step by the government will only further keep away many such students from taking up professional courses, the release said.
Already, the hike of Rs.10,000 in government engineering colleges has forced many students to drop engineering courses and now, with fee hike in private engineering colleges, more students will be forced to stay away from engineering courses.
AIDSO will appeal to students, parents and educational activists to raise objections to the hike and launch a movement against the undemocratic move, Ms. Meti has said in the release.
