DGCA may allow arts, commerce 12th pass students to turn pilots

NEW DELHI: Class 12 passouts from arts and commerce streams may soon be allowed to become commercial pilots in India. In a major reform, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is considering removing the current eligibility requirement of a student having physics and maths in class 12 for commercial pilot licence (CPL) training.Of course, medical fitness criteria will remain for all.
In India, this field has been open only for science & maths students since the mid 1990s. Before that, a 10th pass (matric) was the only educational requirement for doing CPL here.
"Once finalised, this recommendation will be sent to the Union aviation ministry. When they approve it, CPL training will be open for eligible students (those found medically fit) across streams," said people in the know.
Veteran pilot Captain Shakti Lumba, who retired as IndiGo VP-flight operations and had before that headed Alliance Air, says no country other than India has the requirement of physics and maths at Class 12 level as eligibility criteria for CPL training. "This is an archaic requirement and needs to go. The physics and maths taught in 12th is not needed by pilots. They already have the required understanding of these subjects from whatever they have studied in junior classes," he said.
If anything, this rule has been an impediment for arts and commerce students who want to become a commercial pilot. "Such students have to give Class 12 exam for physics and maths from open school to become eligible to enrolling for the course. Many have done so," Captain Lumba, who flew as a pilot for 31 years, says.
Several flying school operators also questioned the current rule "which makes no sense and should go." "If you a rich person and want to fly your own plane, having physics and maths in class 12 is not a prerequisite for getting a personal pilot licence (PPL) in India. But for CPL, that is needed. This simply doesn't make sense," said an owner of a flying school.
Now finally this condition may go as the aviation ministry is looking at various options to streamline pilot training in India to meet the manpower requirement of its booming airline industry. The DGCA is also working on ranking flying schools in India on various parameters like safety and time taken for CPL completion so that trainees can make an educated choice for choosing from among them. So far due to concerns primarily on these two fronts, a large number of Indian students go abroad for their CPL training.
"A lot of things are in the works and the changes will show very soon," said officials.