Srinagar: Students admitted to diploma courses at Polytechnic colleges in Jammu and Kashmir will have to complete their three-year degrees within eight years failing which they would not be entitled to any relaxation.
The Jammu and Kashmir Board of Technical Education (JKBOTE) in a fresh guidelines said that the students enrolled for the polytechnic courses will have to complete the 3-year diploma course in maximum of eight years as per the formula “two times the duration of course plus two years”.
It cited an instance saying many students admitted in 2012 are yet to complete their degrees and they will have the last chance to complete the course by December 2020.
“Thereafter, no student from session 2012 will be allowed to sit in any board examination beyond November-December 2020,” said the notice.
Secretary JKBOTE, Er Mahmood Ahmad told Kashmir Reader that the notice was issued in order to give prior information to 2012 batch students to complete their courses before the deadline.
He said the students still have a year comprising two examination sessions to complete their pending papers of different semesters.
According to him, the decision to complete the 3-year courses within maximum of eight years was taken by the board in 2017 in consultation with the finance and planning departments.
The deadline of maximum eight years for the course completion, Ahmad said, would help in improving quality of education among the students.
“It was ratified by the board that the course should be completed within a maximum of eight years rather than keeping it open-ended, because eight years is more than sufficient time for the course completion,” he said.
Ahmad said that an open-ended time frame for the course completion created a sense of leniency among the students, who don’t take their studies seriously.
A good number of students admitted at the polytechnic colleges from 2011 had failed to complete the courses even during the maximum eight years, he added.
The board was mulling to consider their candidature to enable them to complete the courses, he added.

Irshad Khan