Only a board stands testimony to the existence of the Centre for Adult Continuing Education and Extension (CACEE) in Cochin University of Science and Technology. Walk into the building and the search will lead to a dead end as the centre has been defunct for the past few months. Reason? The funds have lapsed and the project has not been taken up. The board is misleading. Moreover, it tops the list of prestigious centres in this year’s varsity diary.
It’s death knell for the centre like a few others in the varsity. Sanctioned by the University Grants Commission during the tenth and eleventh five year plans, it started functioning in 2006 when funds were released. Soon it turned out to be much sought after for its training methodologies.
The centre was active with workshops, refresher courses and seminars and it was helpful to those in service and others as well.
The staff associated with it wanted the project to continue but unfortunately the proposal was not submitted for extending it.
“The project should be taken up as it was offering training in any branch of knowledge. Short-term courses were organised and the demand was for library science, information technology, general science and engineering science,” said V P N Nampoori who was the coordinator of the centre till he retired.
One of the faculty members should take the initiative to submit the project if the centre has to continue.
“This is an individual project and one of the faculty members should submit the project. The Twelfth Plan projects has not been released. If the project is submitted to the UGC, the tenure of the centre can be extended,” said Cusat Registrar A Ramachandran.