TEQIP Phase III to end in September; Education ministry asking states for plan

NEW DELHI: Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP)’s third phase is going to end on September 30.

The Ministry of Education has written to the chief secretaries of focus states requesting plans for continuation of activities that were undertaken during the third phase of TEQIP to maintain the quality of technical education.

The programme was started by the ministry of education in 2017 to improve the quality of engineering education in technical institutions of India. The states were expected to absorb the teachers for TEQIP, most from premium institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), but haven't.

In the last few months, over 1,500 teachers who were placed in backward areas for the TEQIP programme were on the verge of losing their jobs and were waiting for contract renewal.

Education ministry research programme

The reply submitted in Lok Sabha suggests it will be replaced by another programme, MERITE.

“A token amount of Rs 10 crore has been given towards “Multidisciplinary Education Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE)” in the recent budget 2021-22 to start preparatory works,” the education ministry told Lok Sabha on Monday.

“The Government of India has been making continuous efforts to ensure that the focus state governments prepare a sustainability plan for the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP-III), so as to avoid any academic standstill beyond the project period i.e 30th September 2021," the statement further said.

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