VISION FOR MAKING TS AN EDUCATIONAL HUB : VANAM JWALA NARASIMHA RAO

(Recovered and Reloaded)

VISION FOR MAKING TS AN EDUCATIONAL HUB

VANAM JWALA NARASIMHA RAO

METRO INDIA NEWSPAPER (26-05-2016)

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao told representatives of private engineering, degree, pharmacy and other professional managements in the state to partner with government in evolving an educational policy for Telangana to improve quality of education in the state. CM is of the opinion that the state should become an educational hub and the private institutes should contribute towards this by introducing quality and productive oriented courses in the curriculum in place of the traditional ones. According to CM this can be done through organizing symposia and workshops among themselves. CM sought the suggestions of private college managements on improving quality and requested them to submit a report with their recommendations. In addition, CM also suggested, that they should introspect whether so many numbers of seats in professional colleges are really required and whether all those who are graduated are able to get jobs in tune with their professional education and should we continue in the same fashion or make changes. Citing an example of recent recruitment for the post of police constables, CM said that nearly 30, 000 professional graduates like engineers applied for them. This would not have been the case had it been properly assessed about the numbers to be admitted in the professional colleges. CM advised the private managements to introduce courses that would fetch jobs and dispense with courses that have no job opportunities.

Touching the important subject of bogus colleges both professional and non-professional CM questioned the representatives of the managements whether it is desirable to have such colleges. If they are allowed, what the rest of the country and to that matter the outside world would feel about it. Unscientifically without any estimation and erratic way colleges of engineering and D. Ed and B. Ed were set up in the state. If two Lakh engineers and 40-50 thousands of D. Ed and B. Ed qualified persons come out every year will it be possible to employ all of them? Where will this lead? It is always essential that in the field of education constant update is to be brought in.

Telangana is a new state and just two years old. Several characteristics have been inherited from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Government and as part of that even the problems pertaining to private educational institutions have also been inherited. None of the problems are created by present Telangana Government. In fact during the agitation for separate state and even after formation CM has been repeatedly mentioning that the state needs reinventing and reorienting. In many areas there is no proper system. Why many unnecessary things happened without any basis and why none of them could be rectified is million dolor question.

As a new state we should know what we are doing today and lay a perfect foundation for the future of the state and people. CM said that “we can err on the right side but cannot err on the wrong”. The new state requires proper direction in general and in the areas of education, health, industry, irrigation, drinking water etc in particular. In one of the meetings CM had with President of NASSCOM, a not for profit organization working in the IT sector, the subject matter of engineering colleges was broached. Surprisingly the president told CM that out of 100 fake certificates in engineering 75 are from Hyderabad. Why should this happen? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? Should this be allowed is the question.

Time is always dynamic says CM. Circumstances will never remain the same always. State, country and the world is progressing fast. Today anyone can get in touch with anyone through cell even from Adilabad forest to America. Why not changes take place here in Telangana including in the field of education?

It is always desirable to have private educational institutions in addition to public institutions and then only real competition can be felt. If we ask even poor people these days as to why they are not sending their children to government schools, the answer we get is, in government schools medium of instruction is not English. Hence private is preferred. In such a situation when even poor are looking at private institutions it is the responsibility of those who run them to do so ethically. It is unfortunate that some colleges are only namesake and without faculty and without students they run them. It is not true that to avoid fee reimbursement government has resorted to inspections. CM says that Telangana is a rich state and is not afraid of reimbursing the fee. As long as the colleges are run effectively and efficiently imparting qualitative education there is no problem for fee reimbursement.

CM pointed out that the practices adopted by some private colleges like showing one single faculty working in eleven colleges is highly unethical. Some colleges are showing PG students as their faculty. It is not the intention of the government to shut down the private colleges. However, reiterated the CM that a day has to come when he proudly will be able to announce that there is not even a single bogus college in the state. Government’s stand on bogus colleges and those who have misused fee reimbursement would continue to be harsh. Misuse of fee reimbursement could be plugged only through periodical inspections. Through inspection the bogus colleges will be weeded out and the money saved out of this process will be utilized for genuine colleges through incentives for better performance said CM. With this assurance CM firmly said that the inspection will continue and if found bogus they would be shut down without any hesitation. CM however assured them of enough time to rectify the shortcomings. The message that Telangana Government is trying to improve the quality of education has to reach public. It is only handful number of people that are bringing bad name to the entire system and this need to be checked at any cost.

CM in his concluding remarks assured that fee reimbursement shall be regularly and periodically done hereafter. He however cautioned that the private institutions should do everything right royally without committing mistakes and asserted that “I do not want to kill the institutions but I want to kill bogus activity under any circumstances”. End