With a noble and laudable ideal of serving the economically poor of all social categories, and with a firm conviction that education is the panacea for all social and economic evils plaguing the society, the Government of Andhra Pradesh launched its flagship scheme of reimbursement of tuition fee in the year 2008to the poor SC, ST, BC and EBC students whose parental annual income was less than Rs. 1, 00,000 (Rupees one lakh) only/-. The scheme is applicable to all UG & PG programmes of study, General, Technical and Professional courses. This was a welcome step to many thousands of students and parents, who were denied access to higher education due to lack of affordability.
The fee reimbursement scheme opened the gates of technical education to all, made thousands of first generation students of many below poverty line (BPL) families to take advantage and become engineers, doctors, dentists, Pharmacists, Software Professionals, Management Executives, Agricultural Scientistsetc.When compared to general education, the technical and professional education like B. Tech, MBBS, BDS, BVSc, B. Sc (Agri), MBA, MCA etc are costly in terms of tuition fee but offer new vistas of opportunity for high package jobs, pursuing higher education in India & abroad, Research and Development and also avenues of entrepreneurship. These technical graduates are proving their metal in many competitive examinations like Civil services, Group I & II,Bank officers, Commissioned Officers in Defence, High level managers etc by grabbing top ranks in those selections by virtue of discipline, regular academic pursuit, continuous learning, effort for updating knowledge, hands on experience etc imparted to them during their study of UG Technical Courses. Realising this importance, the government of Andhra Pradesh pioneered this scheme so that, all those students who qualified in the entrance tests concerned could pursue their technical & professional courses with no fear or constraint of exorbitant tuition fee of technical courses especially in self financing institutions. The higher rate of tuition fee is no more a hurdle to any deserving student to complete his study and become a qualified technocrat and professional which gives them a decent social and economic status thus uplifting the whole family. This scheme is praiseworthy as it is in tune with the provisions of Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Indian Constitution with a specific objective of narrowing economic disparities prevailing in different social categories. It is an extension of fee reimbursement to SC, ST students already in vogue with Central Government funds. Launching the scheme at a time when exponential increase of engineering, medical and management seats at UG & PG level because of multiple growth of number of colleges/ institutions, gave a sigh of relief to many economically disadvantaged families and lakhs of students availed this scheme. A number of students who benefited by this scheme are highly thankful to the government for extending such a help and there are instances of such students expressing their gratitude by donating their first salary to C.M relief fund as a token of their gratefulness and commitment to this scheme so that the money donated by them will definitely strengthen the hands of the government to implement this scheme with all seriousness it deserves. This resourceful, timely initiative on the part of government of Andhra Pradesh has no parallel in any other state as its annual budget touches nearly Rs. 3,500 crores. It can be said without slightest exaggeration that thousands of students could become professionals and technocrats only because of this generous scheme.
Some political parties criticized that it was started only to have vote banks to favour the party that introduced the scheme in the elections. The realization on the part of powers that be, that giving piece of land for cultivation, house site or constructed house, giving sheep or goats, buffalos, poultry or pigs etc. either to husband or wife of the poorest of the poor families proved that the economic upliftment of those families was a mirage as all those given by government are misused and still millions of families are below the poverty line. The ultimate truth lies in providing technical education to the youth that enables them to eke their livelihood and other avenues of income. The awareness on the part of general public especially lower middle class and BPL families that they can enhance their economic and social status irrespective of their caste/religion, only by providing technical education to their children which empowers and equips the youth with core technical competencies/skills that are required in India & Abroad. Now, India is one of the countries exporting largest technically trained manpower to both developing and developed countries in the world. Thus the reimbursement of tuition fee scheme ignited the minds of many youth to work with dedication and commitment to realize their life dreams of technical and professional education with a roadmap to reach their destiny to redeem themselves from all economic disabilities.
Such a noble scheme was implemented in a hurry giving scope for misuse by many anti-social students, revenue officials and college managements. There by it became a great financial burden to the state exchequer as the total amount to be reimbursed ran to the tune of Rs. 3,500 crores annually. As the government could not clear its dues to the college management in time there are huge arrears payable along with current year’s payable amount. There were number of strikes and agitations for the prompt payment of reimbursed amount to the respective institutions by both students and managements In majority engineering colleges, the percentage of students availing this scheme is nearly 70% because of the practices like spot admissions, bringing students from other states etc. The college coffers became empty and the college managements could not pay monthly salaries to their staff regularly as the government failed to release the amount due to the colleges under this scheme. The managements have gone to the extent of threatening the government that they were compelled to close the colleges as they have no funds to pay agreed salaries to their staff. Many management became irregular in paying monthly salaries to their staff causing untold suffering to the families of the staff members for no fault of theirs. The government has no other go but to constitute a sub-committee with five ministers to study the whole scheme in detail where and how the scheme has been abused. The study of sub-committee of the group of ministers and the chairman of A.P State Council of Higher Education unraveled many exciting truths of misuse and abuse. On the other hand, the minds of the students were so much agitated on this dilly-dallying on the part of the government in releasing the amount that they started suspecting the government as to the continuation of the scheme. There were rumors that government was going to scuttle or shelve the scheme and elimination of PG studies from the scheme to reduce the financial burden.
As a temporary solution, the government proposed that it will give counter guarantee to banks for the college managements to apply for loans but the banks refused to sanction loans to the colleges on the basis of government bank guarantee. The government pleaded that it can pay fee reimbursement arrears to private institutions in three installments over a period of one year. There was intervention of Supreme Court to clear the pending fee reimbursement dues. It all shows the utter distress under which the government is continuing and operating the scheme. It is but natural to the government to set forth certain measures to reduce its financial burden under this scheme by plugging the loopholes. It came out with clear cut instructions and guidelines to eliminate or minimize its isuse and abuse. More than thousand persons aged above 40 years availed this scheme during 2010-11. There are over 51 persons aged above 70 years receiving funds for higher studies under this scheme. Crores of rupees were swindled by some unscrupulous managements by making fake admissions and claiming the money. Some bogus students with the connivance of the college authorities drew huge amounts under this scheme from the government. There are thousands of students doing B.Com after B.A availing fee reimbursement for both the courses.
Serious effort is now being done to plug those leakages and make the whole scheme foolproof and extend the benefit to all eligible and deserving applicants. The age norms are fixed. The maximum age limit for availing this scheme is 34 years for OC and BC students and 39 years for SC & ST students. Only those students that are filled by the convener of EAMCET, not the seats filled by spot admissions are eligible for this scheme. The daily attendance of the beneficiary student and their academic performance will be criteria for continuation of this scheme for the senior students. There is no appropriate machinery to identify genuine poor for ensuring that the welfare and development schemes reach them without misuse. Despite implementation of welfare programmes for over three or four decades in all our five year plans, spending lakhs of crores of rupees there is steady increase in the number of white card holders indicating the number of BPL families. While the state put the number of BPL families at 38%, center showed it as 29%, but white cards were issued to over 50% of families in the state. Every welfare scheme was linked to the white card, be it pension, housing, fee reimbursement, Arogyasri Health scheme to identify the genuine beneficiaries and to check the misuse of the schemes. This is causing undue burden on the state exchequer as no proper care is taken while issuing white cards due to political pressures of local leaders and other equations.
Many students hailing from affluent families are availing this scheme. The children of families having luxurious cars and Income Tax assesses are availing fee reimbursement with no fear of punishment or shame of stigma. Present practice of taking declaration on Rs. 100/- non judicial stamp paper as to the correctness of documents submitted, duly signed by the candidates and parent/guardian is done by the parents with no seriousness and sanctity without understanding its legal implications as they are sure that it has no consequences of any sort and it became a routine paper to be enclosed. The crux of the matter is the liberal issue of annual income certificate to the parents of the students by revenue authorities, MRO/Tahsildar because of rampant and structured corruption prevailing in the corridors of those offices. For mere asking, income certificate can be obtained by anyone for any amount by greasing the hands of the concerned. If MRO/Tahsildars exercise their powers after through inquiry, not succumbing to any pressure or temptation, issue income certificates using their discretion properly, it is said, the number of beneficiaries of fee reimbursement scheme will be only 30% of students admitted in convener quota and the financial burden will be only Rs.1000 to Rs. 1200 crores annually. To make the MRO/Tahsildars responsible and vigilant thorough verification of income certificates issued by them shall be done by impartial vigilance authorities, catch hold of at least 10 or 15 cases of wrong income certificates in each district and put those revenue officials under suspension and give grate publicity for that.
This will send a correct message to all other revenue officials.To check bogus/fake students, biometric system with finger prints and eye balls shall be made mandatory. Attendance data of the students availing this scheme shall be collected from respective institutions and made a basis for renewal of this scheme to senior students. Uniform fee structure, ending present variations in all universities/colleges shall be worked out to have clear idea of annual financial burden. A vigilance and enforcement cell to be created in every district to check fake institutions, bogus students by making surprise checks. Already the government has issued stiff instructions to revenue authorities in the issue of income certificates which made them jittery. Because of this only nearly one lakh applicants of last academic year 2010-11 having documentary deficiencies are failing to forward the proof despite many extension of time for the fear of further probe and investigation of those papers. It is a happy symptom. Such steps will definitely check the abuse of the scheme. Fee reimbursement shall not be a scholarship/ donation/gift to the student. The beneficiary student shall be asked to pay back in installments the amount of reimbursement availed by him after he starts earning. This practice exists in South Africa and many other countries. This makes the students responsible not only to claim but also to payback. Payback scheme with little variation is there already in the case of management studies at ISB, IIMS, Technical Education in India & Abroad where the banks facilitate the amount of tuition fee and maintenance and collects back with nominal interest by way of installments after the loanee gains employment. Only by some such method the entire fee reimbursement scheme can be made purposeful and productive. The amounts thus collected back will form a permanent fund for this purpose to be given to future students.
The difficulty in tracing the students after he leaves the college etc can be resolved by way of Unique Identification Number/Aadhaar Card. So serious thought may be given to this proposal without thinking of cheap popularity .
(The author is Dean, SLC’s Institute of Engg & Technology)