Guntur: The All India Council for Technical Education's (AICTE) decision to introduce ‘second shift' for B.Tech courses in engineering colleges does not find favour with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, which has duly raised its concern about the consequences of doing so.

The government has objected to the proposal, saying that it will not help improve the quality of education. The number of engineering seats in Andhra Pradesh has reached a whopping 2,70,000 and many colleges are unable to impart quality education due to faculty and infrastructure constraints.

The second shift will affect quality as colleges are already grappling with lack of qualified staff (the dearth of M.Tech qualified faculty is more pronounced) and other inadequacies.

The AICTE has given permission to about 48 engineering colleges in different States to commence second shift.

Colleges interested in conducting classes in second shift have to obtain the AICTE's permission and also ‘No Objection Certificate' from the respective State Governments.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has expressed its reservations to the AICTE and requested it to thoroughly weigh the pros and cons before allowing more colleges to implement the additional shift system. Some 15 new engineering colleges are in the pipeline in the State this year.

The sheer number of colleges would only improve access to engineering education but quality could not be guaranteed, Technical Education Minister Mopidevi Venkataramana told The Hindu.

Second shift was in vogue for diploma courses in 62 polytechnic colleges in Andhra Pradesh, but replicating the same model in engineering colleges would cause a lot of problems, the Minister opined. Several other factors, which play a crucial role in quality, should have been kept in mind while giving shape to the second shift policy, JNTU-Kakinada Vice-Chancellor Allam Appa Rao told this correspondent over phone.