MANGALURU: Around 12,000 engineers from India who are working in Kuwait are facing the risk of losing their jobs. Reason: The Kuwait Society of Engineers (KSE) is insisting on no objection certificate (NOC) clearance from engineers who have studied in colleges in India which do not have National Board of Accreditation (NBA) certification.
According to the Indian engineers working in Kuwait, the engineering degree certificates issued by many Indian colleges were earlier recognised and are now suddenly being de-recognised for want of NBA certification.
The issue has been highlighted in a memorandum submitted to Dr Arathi Krishna, former deputy chairman, NRI Forum, Government of Karnataka, by Vaikunth R Shenoy, a mechanical engineer who works in M/s Bader Al Mulla & Bros. Co.
Shenoy said the issue is being consistently raised with the Indian embassy in Kuwait, but nothing has been done. “In 2018, the KSE brought up the issue of re-verification of engineering degrees. In 2020, it raised the issue of re-verification of the engineering degrees after re-stamping by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kuwait (MOFA).
This year, they again brought up the issue of re-verification of engineering degrees through data flow (document verification by third party). Now, KSE is demanding NBA certification for 4 years of engineering studies,” said Shenoy.
‘Indian edu system not given its due’
“Indian education system, which is being acknowledged worldwide for producing the best engineers, doctors and chartered accountants among others is not being given its due by Kuwait. Ministry of External Affairs needs to take up the issue,” he said.
The central government should make Kuwait understand that any full-time engineering degree awarded by colleges/ universities approved by AICTE, IITs and NITs do not require NBA certification. NBA should be made mandatory only for deemed universities in India to ensure that the education curriculum is at par with the norms of AICTE approved colleges/universities.
Expressing concern, Mohandas Kamath, another engineer working in Kuwait, said, “The future of 12,000 Indian engineers and their families hangs in balance.” The NBA was established by AICTE in 1994 to assess the qualitative competence of courses offered by educational institutions from diploma level to post-graduate level in engineering and technology, management, pharmacy, architecture and related disciplines.