They claim the authorities have made the fees prohibitively high for the five-percent supernumerary quota for children of Indian workers in the Gulf (CIWG), ordered by the government in 2004 and implemented last year.
The law states that a CIWG should pay the fee applicable to general merit students’ back home. However, the brochure for the new academic year prescribes a massive $8,000 fee a year. The non-refundable registration fee of $300 is also on a higher side.
“My son is preparing for next month’s SAT (scholastic aptitude test). But I can’t afford its costs,” said a parent from Kuwait. “It defeats the very purpose of the quota.”
He has also submitted a petition addressed to the foreign minister and human resources minister through the Indian embassy in Kuwait City.
There are 746 undergraduate seats reserved for CIWG in 47 premier state-run schools offering courses in engineering, planning, architecture and management. There are a proportionate number of seats in postgraduate courses as well.
These include National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) and the Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST).
Last year 429 candidates from the Gulf had secured admissions under the CIWG quota. However, this year the cutoff SAT2 scores awarded by the College Board, US, has been set at 1,800, an increase of 600 points, making it tougher to secure admission.
Former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had announced the quota at the 2004 annual diaspora conclave in New Delhi, as a tribute to the workers in the Gulf for their role in boosting the nation’s foreign exchange reserves.
The rationale was to improve the quality of workforce exported and the proportional increase in remittances. The All India Council for Technical Education, the regulatory body, soon issued a notification. But it took more than a decade for the scheme’s implementation.
“We had high expectations when the present government headed by Narendra Modi, who considers Vajpayee as his mentor, took a bold step last year,” he said.
“We suspect some bureaucrats are sabotaging it.”
The parents’ online petitions at change.org have so far more than 1,000 signatories, many of them also expressing grave concerns.
The brochure states children of NRIs from the Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran and Iraq are eligible for admissions under the Direct Admissions to Students Abroad (DASA) 2017.
Applications are open from April 1, and allotments begin on June 19.
“Last year, the fees at $1,400 a year for engineering seats were almost on par with resident Indians. Now it is on par with foreign students,” he said.
“Most of us aspiring candidates, worked hard during the year, to get satisfactory SAT2 scores that would allow us to get into premier colleges through this scheme,” one petitioner, identified as SP, said.
“Now out of nowhere, at the last minute, DASA changes the game, yet again and has increased the CIWG fees,” claims the petition addressed to the human resources ministry.
