Andhra CM calls for education audit

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday asked higher education officials to evolve methods for education audit. “The results and the outcomes are not on the expected lines with respect to the high spending in the higher education sector,” he said.

Addressing the vice-chancellors' conference at the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University here, he said there was a need for a mechanism to monitor the quality of education imparted.

Though the state has three IIITs for students who have completed Class X, these were seeing a lukewarm response as most of the students preferred corporate intermediate colleges. The government was spending Rs 100,000 per student in the IIITs, which would have 6,600 students at full capacity, he said.

The state produces about 450,000 undergraduates including 170,000 engineers, 34,000 MBAs, 46,000 MCAs, 6,000 medicos among others.

Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education chairman KC Reddy said the state in five years had increased the number of universities to 32 by establishing one university in each of the 23 districts of the state from the earlier nine.

The universities would adopt some resolutions and draw up a blue print for improving the quality of higher education.