Technical colleges likely to see two-three month delay in 2021-22 academic session

States like Maharashtra haven’t been able to finish their admission counselling for 2020-21 so far. As a result, AICTE expects a delay in the next session.

Representational image of college students in India | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: Technical institutions in the country are likely to start the academic session 2021-22 with a two-three month delay, as some states are yet to finish admission counselling for the ongoing session, ThePrint has learnt.

Sources in the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the body that looks after technical education in the country, said states like Maharashtra have not been able to finish their admission counselling for the year 2020-21 so far and hence they have been given an extension to complete it by the end of this month.

“Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing number of Covid cases in the country, states that had a high case load could not finish their admission counselling process for first year students, meaning which student would chose which college or course… all these things could not be decided,” said a source in the AICTE.

“It was supposed to be done by November, but some states could not complete the process in time and had to be given an extension,” the source added.

Last month, the council had given an extension to states to finish the admission process by 31 December. But the deadline has now been extended till end of January, the source added.

Confirming the development, AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said, “Some states are yet to finish their admission counselling and we had to give them an extension till January end to do so… this is going to delay the next academic session by at least two-three months. It will take us at least two years to get the academic session back on track.”

Sync will cause delay

According to the source quoted above, the delay by a few states will not affect the current academic session for the other states, as classes have already started elsewhere. However, the next academic session will be delayed as the admission calendar for all colleges have to be in sync with each other.

“Given that some states are yet to finish their admission process, this (2020-21) session will take a lot longer to finish and will have to be completed in a shorter time span. The delay will spill over the next academic session as well and it will most likely be delayed,” the source said.

AICTE’s revised academic calendar released in August said all colleges were expected to complete their second round of admission counselling by 1 November and classes for the first year students were supposed to begin in November. However, some states failed to meet the deadline due to Covid-19.

ThePrint had reported earlier that the Ministry of Education is planning to form a panel to study and mitigate the loss in the next academic session. The panel will take into account the delay in CBSE Class 12 board examinations, the schedule for state boards and the delay caused in college admissions because of locally prevalent conditions in some states to come up with a revised calendar.