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Mission ‘Admission J J’!
Chitra, a young student from a small town in Maharashtra is keen on taking admission in Sir J J School of Art. She takes help from Vidya, a senior friend, for her preparations. Vidya connects Chitra with Mr Sumit, a seasoned education administrator, for guidance. Mr Sumit stumbles upon some facts about the institute that are disturbing. It compels him to take a deeper dive which puts him in a serious dilemma as he is trying to help Chitra in her mission ‘Admission J J’.
Chitra*, a young and enthusiastic student from a small town in Maharashtra, is keen on pursuing a career in Art. She is good at sketching, drawing and painting, and proud that she has passed both Elementary and Intermediate Art examinations during her high-school time. Her art teacher from school used to guide her for that. However, there is hardly anyone in her surroundings who can guide her further. Even her parents don’t know anything about art education. On her own she tried to gather information about art colleges and institutes. All she knew from her school art teacher was that she must try to get admission in Sir J J School of Art in Mumbai because it is one of the best Art Education Institutions in India.
Luckily, Chitra met Vidya* who is a few years senior to her, has completed engineering and now into higher studies in management field. According to Chitra, Vidya is the smartest young woman that she has come across so far. Vidya is not only knowledgeable about career and education but also very friendly and helpful. Chitra started taking Vidya’s help and advice in finding detailed information on how to proceed in her chosen field of Art.
Vidya recommended Chitra to familiarize herself with every detail about the course and the institute she was interested in. This would be useful during the interview process once she clears the CET. As Chitra started surfing the website of J J School of Art, she was happy to see different courses, various departments, and the photos of the campus. Chitra soon submitted the application forms to appear for the CET exam. She planned to choose J J School of Art as her first preference but also short-listed another Art College in her hometown as backup plan. Even though she is a talented and hardworking student keen to take admission in the Mumbai Institute, she is nervous because of the competition for admission amongst students from all over the state and India for the coveted School of Art.
As this was a major life-changing decision for Chitra, upon Vidya’s advice she met Mr Sumit* for detailed guidance. Mr Sumit is working with a private college and is knowledgeable about govt rules and regulations related to education field. He listened to Chitra patiently about her future and her doubts about interview preparation. He provided few tips on communication skills to her. However, he was curious to know more about the course and the institute she had applied to. So, he decided to do his own homework and provide her in-depth guidance. Afterall, Chitra was of similar age as that of his daughter.
While surfing the website of J J School of Art, Mr Sumit’s experienced eyes noticed something that left him rather disappointed. He found that the letter of approval (LoA) from AICTE that is displayed on the website of J J School of Art is dated 30/04/2018, which clearly mentions that the approval is valid for a period of two years from the date of the letter. It means that the validity of the courses was over by the end of April 2020. Whereas Chitra had applied for admission for the Academic Year 2023-24! “Is she doing the right thing?” Mr Sumit exclaimed.
Mr Sumit’s thoughts started racing at the speed of light. He thought, as this is the latest LoA publicly disclosed by the Institute, it is not clear whether there is any LoA received after this one. So, it is not clear that during the past three years from April 2020 till date (July 2023), what is the status of approval of the courses that were conducted and the students who took admission? Maybe the institute received the fresh approval but has not yet displayed it on their website? He thought this because he didn’t want to jump to any conclusion.
But at the same time, he could not ignore the fact that, as a good practice, reputed educational institutes publicly display the latest versions of such important documents on their websites and update them regularly. They do this in the interest of students and all concerned stakeholders. This also helps the colleges in their efforts to reach out to prospective students who need authentic and latest information about the courses. Even in his college, Mr Sumit was aware how keen their management was to update such details on their website.
Here, Mr Sumit decided to verify the facts from AICTE – the highest regulatory authority that governs the regulatory matters of Engineering, Management and other educational institutions across India, including Art education. He sighed in relief as he could not find the name of J J School of Art in the list of ‘Unapproved’ Institutes on the website of AICTE on this link:
https://facilities.aicte-india.org/dashboard/pages/angulardashboard.php#!/unapproved
Still, Mr Sumit was not satisfied with that. For in-depth understanding of the scenario, he came back to the website of J J school only to find that the Institute is majorly understaffed, as more than half of the govt approved posts are vacant, as mentioned on the J J website link https://www.sirjjschoolofart.in/about-us/members-of-faculty. To be precise, according to J J website, out of the 50 approved Faculty posts, only 21 are filled. Regular classes are conducted by just a handful of full-time faculty and few faculty who are on a contract basis.
“This does not sound good!” Mr Sumit said to himself, now getting worried about Chitra’s dreams. This was a major mismatch with the image which he had in his mind about the institution with a glorious history of 166 years.
So, he went to AICTE website and found that the list of faculties in J J School of Art as per the records of AICTE for AY 2022-23 shows a list of 25 faculty members, out of which only 8 are Regular, 10 are on contract basis and 7 are on Ad Hoc basis. Link to AICTE website:
https://facilities.aicte-india.org/dashboard/pages/angulardashboard.php#!/approved
“Oh my god, that means out of 21 faculty members shown on the website of J J, only 8 are full time!” Here, Mr Sumit remembered the challenges faced by his college in maintaining the standard of education by using such combination of full time and contract basis faculty members. “I have nothing against the contractual teachers, it is difficult for them to deliver the content and be responsible for overall education quality for the meagre compensation that they get while working of contract basis.” Mr Sumit thought, as he was taking a balanced view of the scenario.
Anyhow, lack of sufficient teaching faculty is a serious issue that would affect the quality of education at any Institute. Mr Sumit was now getting more worried about many other students like Chitra who had applied not knowing that there is no approval from AICTE for the Academic Year 2023-24, and not knowing that there is not sufficient teaching staff. Neither these students nor their parents who are from different parts of the state and country, have any idea about such administrative matters. They just have a dream of taking admission in a prestigious Institute.
The seasoned education administrator in Mr Sumit’s mind was not letting him accept this. “There must be an administrative way out which AICTE must have provided to overcome such shortcomings. I must find out.”, said Mr Sumit, as he pushed himself to think further. Soon he found that there has been a way out provided by AICTE already.
He found on their website that AICTE had issued a letter regarding compliance of deficiencies dated 1/05/2023 addressed to the Chief Secretary of Higher and Technical Education / Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) of all states and UTs, that states necessary compliance of deficiencies relating to faculty and infrastructure. It clearly mentions that the approval for AY23-24 shall be granted to institutions as per norms prescribed in Approval Process Handbook 2023-24.
Link to AICTE website:
That means, any institute cannot proceed with admissions of AY 23-24 without providing proper teaching faculty and infrastructure. Whichever institute had any such compliance deficiencies for the academic year 2023-24, were given the chance to comply through this process, before they proceed with the admission process for AY 23-24. Now the question before Mr Sumit was whether J J School of Art has undergone this process already or not?
He further found out that there is a public notice for approval process issued by AICTE which mentions that the last date for submission of online application is 13/04/2023.
Link to the notice on AICTE website:
https://www.aicte-india.org/sites/default/files/Website%20-%20Public%20Notice_0.pdf
Now that this date has already passed, Mr Sumit thought, still optimistic, that somehow, a prestigious Institute like J J must have taken necessary compliance action before starting the admission process of AY 23-24. However, upon enquiring about those details with the Institute, he could not get any confirmation.
Mr Sumit is now in a dilemma about how he could provide the best career advice to Chitra and what would be the future of all other students who are coming for admission in blind faith.
Readers, do you have any suggestions for him?
Vineel Bhurke
Note: *Chitra, Vidya and Mr Sumit are changed names.
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