Letter from Bangalore: Education in Karnataka to cost more

Indians in the Gulf better tighten their belts, rather their purse strings, if they share the dream of the middle classes of getting their children a professional course, especially if they choose Karnataka.

This academic year, inflation is going to hit practically everyone who has a child ready to enter courses like engineering, medical and dental, in a state that hosts India's biggest and, perhaps, the best higher education industry.

After days of negotiations between a cabinet sub-committee and representatives of private professional colleges, the latter have agreed to a fee structure for the engineering courses that would make anybody wince. It has doubled, almost.

Students who get seats under the government quota in private engineering colleges, what used to be called the free seats until last year, would have to pay Rs20,000 this year onwards as against Rs11,590 last year.

And, those students who seek admission under the quota reserved for private managements, what used to be called the free seat quota until last year, would have to pay anything between Rs40,000 to Rs60,000, depending upon the private institution, instead of Rs46,590.

There are, however, not one but two silver linings, if it can be called so. One, that there is maximum ceiling of Rs60,000 annually. Two, which only time will prove, is that the parents need not struggle to pay the huge capitation fees, as in the past, like Rs200,000 for a civil engineering course or Rs1.2 million for an electronics course.

According to the agreement reached between the private managements and the cabinet sub-committee, the private managements have agreed to part with 50 per cent of the seats to the government.

Until last year, the private managements used to have free seats of only 15 per cent while the government decided through the unusually successful system of a common entrance test (CET) to allot merit and payment seats to students depending upon their performance.

The parting of seats by the managements to the government, a strange reversal of roles, came about in the wake of last year's judgement of the Supreme Court. An 11-member bench ruled, by a majority of one, that the government cannot have any control over private, unaided educational institutions. But, it had also said that the government should fix a rational fee structure.

The government's keenness to ensure it secured some say in the number of seats in private institutions was, obviously, to keep higher education within the reach of the middle classes, more particularly, the socially deprived sections.

"And, not make it like higher education has become in the U.S., where only the rich can secure higher education," as one bureaucrat put it.

"If we do not intervene and sort this out, only the moneyed sections and those from the urban areas, will alone benefit. We had to ensure that some percentage of seats went to the backward classes, particularly, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes," a minister, who did not want to be identified, said.

Interestingly, there were also several private managements of particularly aided institutions that wanted the government to have a say in the matter.

"Not all colleges are like R.V. engineering or BMS engineering colleges. Many of them would not even survive if the government did not ensure allocation of seats to these colleges," said one representative of an engineering college.

"It may be hard for anybody to believe, but the fact is that running a professional college is not anymore a profitable business," said Shamanur Shivashan-karappa, president of the private engineering, medical and dental colleges association.

"Let me also tell you, after this new scheme comes into existence, a lot of the small and not so popular engineering colleges will simply have to shut down," he said. "The economics just doesn't work out."

That is so far as engineering colleges are concerned where, association representatives say, there is a possibility of cross subsidisation because of the variety of courses. "On the medicine side, it is much more difficult," added Shivashankarappa.

The issue of sharing of seats in medical and dental colleges, along with the fee structure, still remains to be negotiated between the cabinet sub-committee and the private managements.

But, there is just one redeeming factor of this increased expenditure on engineering education which, education experts believe, cannot be anymore subsidised.

It was because of the production of nearly 30,000 graduates from the 100 and odd engineering colleges in Karnataka that multinational and other companies, particularly in information technology, set up shop in Bangalore, making it India's technology capital.

And, going by industry estimates, the talent crunch would continue for many more years to come.