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Here comes another joke from the saffron brigade 

End of an Era!

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : The demand for engineering course among students has come down drastically in the State as is evident from the poor response to certificate verification witnessed during the ongoing EAMCET engineering counselling. The percentage of students appearing for certificate verification in Andhra Pradesh too is very low, though slightly better than in Telangana. 

Only 56,000 students out of 88,947 eligible candidates attended certificate verification so far

In fact, the decline in engineering admissions started last year itself and several colleges sought permission to wind up their operations. This year, the situation is grimmer as bifurcation is affecting the schemes meant for engineering students. There are about 1.74 lakh engineering seats under convener quota available in both the States; only 1.21 lakh students have so far attended the counselling. According to the EAMCET counselling committee data, around 2.34 lakh students qualified this year. While there are around 1.15 lakh seats under convener quota in Andhra Pradesh and 59,515 in Telangana, many of them look destined to be unoccupied.

In Telangana, only 56,000 students out of 88,947 eligible candidates have attended the certificate verification so far. In Andhra Pradesh, only 65,000 students turned against 1.14 lakh eligible candidates. A total 87,859 students across AP and Telangana selected their options from August 17 till date. Educationists and experts attribute this decline in interest to steps taken against the engineering colleges to improve the quality of facilities and standards. They opine that the State government’s strict action against erring engineering colleges in Telangana might have resulted in a decrease in the number of students enrolling in the State.

Renowned educationist Kancha Illaiah said that this could not be the only reason, but pointed at the poor quality of education being imparted to them as a reason for most students to opt out of engineering. He said that now students were looking towards pharmacy for their career. In Telangana, there are 315 engineering colleges among which only 141 colleges were permitted to participate in counseling, while the remaining were de-listed. As many as one lakh seats were cut short as a result of stopping those colleges from counseling.

An EAMCET qualified student D Prakash Yadav, who attended the certificate verification and selected his option during the counseling, said that earlier engineering was more sought after as it provided good job opportunities and was a matter of pride. Meanwhile, college managements have blamed the State Government’s stance to delay the release of fee reimbursement as a reason for the steep fall in the number of students enrolling for the engineering course. They also cite lack of clarity on the recently announced FAST scheme for students as another reason for a decrease in the number of students opting for engineering.

A member of engineering college management’s consortium on condition of anonymity said that the State government had refused to reimburse the fee for engineering students citing different reasons and did not clarify on its new scheme. “This in fact has demoralised several students,” he said.

UPSC Aspirants Detract

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : A large number of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have decided to opt out of preliminary exam in view of the Centre’s decision to do away with English comprehension marks. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had recently issued a circular stating that marks secured in English comprehension in paper-2 of the preliminary examination would not be considered for rankings.

Protest Central decision to do away with English comprehension marks

The paper-2 of the preliminary examination consists of seven parts in which English comprehension carries 20 marks. Students from both States have been opposing the introduction of the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) and demanded the GoI to scrap it completely. Peeved at the Central government’s decision, many students said that they have opted out of the exam after the GoI increased the number of attempts by two times with a hope that there may be reforms from the NDA government before the notification is issued.

One such aspirant K Venkat Goud said, “Central government has given extra attempts for the Civil services exam and I will not appear this time because the examination pattern will surely help Hindi and English medium students.” Another student Rajendar Kumar said that all the segments of preliminary examination paper-2 are in English and Hindi and the last part, English comprehension, was only in English language, which would not be considered for the purpose of ranking. “Students from the South get a good score in English comprehension, but that itself is abolished now owing to pressure from lobbied in north India.

For candidates like us, it will be a waste of energies if we write the examination,” he said. With only two days left for the conduct of preliminary examination i.e. on August 24, some students however want to give it a try by appearing in the examination. On the other hand, experts imparting training for civil services aspirants have expressed their ire at the UPSC’s decision to continue with CSAT in 2014. It was introduced in 2011, by scrapping the optional papers. R C Reddy IAS Academy Director R C Reddy said that the non-English and non-Hindi background students would be put to irreparable loss due to the present pattern of exam for paper 2.

“Our students were able to score good in English comprehension because it was language comprehension and questions asked were only in English, but the remaining part of the CSAT is in Hindi and English which is favourable for students coming from Hindi language background.” Reddy said that non-mathematic background students were also at a disadvantage because of this pattern. He questioned the civil services authorities for including mathematical aptitude test instead of administrative aptitude in the exam pattern. “The pattern of examination itself is designed in such a way that it eliminates non-Hindi students, mostly south Indians,” he added.

4

Political Satire !

Industry Clusters to Come up...

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad: Education standards in engineering colleges across the State are likely to see a quantum leap with government proposing to link curriculum with the needs of the local industry thereby increasing the chances of employment and also employability.

The proposed industry cluster will be spread across the State and linked with the engineering colleges located in various districts of the State. Though the proposal has not been finalized, sources said that this would be implemented tentatively within a year or two. The industry clusters that are proposed to be set up in rural areas across the State would help provide employment and dissemination of career opportunities. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi government has been pitching for industrial clusters to attract industrialists. 
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao hinted that a special industry cluster apart from SEZs would be established and linked with engineering colleges. 

He said that well qualified engineering graduates would be employed at these industries. He further said that for every four or five engineering colleges, there would be a company attached to it and students passing out from these colleges could be accommodated in the company. He said that having a large number of engineering colleges alone would not serve the purpose of quality education, but having higher standards is the need of the hour. Industry cluster includes different sectors like electrical, mechanical, electronics, IT, civil and petrochemical streams. This would help them have well-qualified and industry-ready talent ready for absorption. The Chief Minister has been reiterating on the need to have standard colleges with quality standards.

Noted educationist Kancha Illaiah said that the whole higher education system needs to be revamped and if there is any proposal to enhance the standards of engineering colleges and establishing industry cluster, then it is a good decision that needs to welcomed by one and all. Students and educationists have welcomed this proposal and called for improving the quality of practical training in these colleges.
An engineering final year student from Mancherial town of Adilabad district M Sunil Kumar said that if these plans fructify, students need not settle for petty jobs. “The industry-college tie-up will surely offer us jobs that will pay better,” he said.

Unani Hospitals

Unani hospitals across the State are finding it difficult to serve patients due to irregular medicine supply, authoritarian apathy and fund crunch. Owing to unique in treatment methods, Unani medical system has been the only choice for thousands of people. The medicine being supplied by Government Indian Medicine Pharmacy (GIMP) is not regular and is inadequate.

On condition of anonymity, a doctor said that several medicines used to treat neurological health issues were not supplied by the pharmacy. He said, “The pharmacy does not supply the raw material, medicine and other ingredients citing high costs and lack of funds.” The Unani hospitals work under AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) department. Sources in the AYUSH said that getting ingredients was the biggest challenge being faced by the department. The ingredients include saffron, mishk, vij turkey, buch, singhada, jund e basta, mastagi roomi, ustu quddus. These are brought from Spain, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Italy among other countries.

 
In the absence of these ingredients, doctors are using alternatives to prepare the formulae. On the other hand, staff and fund crunch is deteriorating the condition of Unani hospitals in the State. Sources revealed that there were no appointments in the Unani hospitals for a long time. Apart from doctors, paramedical staff, nurses, ward stewards among others were not being recruited in any of the hospitals in AP and Telangana for a long time. At the same time, the funds that are released for the functioning of the hospitals are neither regular nor sufficient.

A private unani doctor Moahammed Kashif said that government must take immediate steps to save the method of treatment in the State as unani was a side effect-free treatment. He said that authoritarian apathy was responsible for such a sorrow stage. There are around 196 unani dispensaries and five hospitals across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Madrasa Mafia Active

Metro News/ Hyderabad : Madrasas in Hyderabad have become a source of easy money for opportunists who are exploiting the soft corner that many people have towards them. Most of the people who establish such Madrasas are from Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Even the students are brought from other states, mostly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. As city people have been making liberal donations, such ‘institutions’ have mushroomed in   the city.   

Madrasas in City
-Nearly 350 small Madrasas are functioning in city most of which are established by outsiders
-Madrasa mentors draining lakhs of rupees in the name of donations
-Almost all the Madrasas have their own building
-Number of bigger Madrasas is about 20 which collect huge amount of donations, alms, zakat from the businessmen and general public
-Number of students do not cross even 10,000
-Most of the students are outsiders

In a survey conducted in different places in the city revealed that in the Old city, there are two Madrasas for every five kilometers. Most of the Madrasas, which should teach the basic Islamic teachings, are now apparently deviating from that purpose. One such Madrasa is located Old Malakpet. It is being run in a three room rented home and with 57 children most of them hailing from other states. Some students from sub urban areas were also in it. Care taker of the Madrasa said that yearly expenditure of it is Rs 11 to 12 lakhs which is provided by the generous people.

Another one is located at Yakut Pura area which is being run from a double storied building from 1998. Established in the year 1993, it has 150 students most of them from Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and other states. Monthly expenditure of this Madrasa is Rs 1 lakh. According to the chief patron of it, the yearly expenditure is nearly Rs 1 lakh. 

Lack of audit system & blind belief is leading to the mushrooming of such Madrasas 

All the expenditure is being met by people staying nearby. Most of the students studying here are from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and other states. Several Muslim scholars said that taking advantage of public goodwill towards these centres, several opportunists have started their ventures in the city. A local preacher and Islamic scholar Wasimul Haq said that lack of audit system and blind belief of people is leading in mushrooming of such make shift Madrasas in the city. Several other Ulema (clerics) opined that such Madrasas would keep changing their places in city. 

They don’t remain at one place. Abdul Ahad, a care taker of Madarsa, said that people have to identify fake Madrasas before giving any kind of financial aid to them. He said that people in Hyderabad proved to be more generous towards helping religious institutions and several bogus Madrassas sprouted in the city exploiting the situation. People donate huge amounts to Madarsas and also provide several other things like furniture, necessary items and other basic needs of the school.

No Clarity on Non Performers

Metro News/ Hyderabad : Although the counselling process in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for admission to engineering colleges has begun, the fate of the colleges identified by the Telangana government for poor performance is not clear. Whether the government would allow such colleges to admit students this year remains unanswered. The governments of both the States are not forthcoming on the fate of engineering colleges with substandard infrastructure and below par performance.

The AFRC and the university granting affiliation would decide the category on the basis of performance and infrastructure of the colleges

Around 315 engineering colleges in Telangana and 330 in AP have been asked by the EAMCET committee to participate in counselling.
The Task Force committee, in its report, had revealed that more than 120 colleges were running with ‘a poorest of the poor’ infrastructure and ought to be shut down by the government. The committee, appointed in 2012 (before bifurcation), submitted its report in July 2014. The task force report revealed that only 10 percent colleges have a good track record in respect of results and only a few of them have good infrastructure. 

The committee had surveyed 680 engineering colleges, but only 120 out of 700 colleges submitted their performance and infrastructure reports to the committee. The EAMCET committee officials informed that list of SW1 colleges (with good track record) and SW2 colleges in Telangana would be forwarded to the Telangana government by August 16 and to the AP government by August 15. It is not clear how many colleges figured in SW 1 and SW 2, as this has to be decided by the Admissions and Fee Regulation Committee (AFRC) members. Telangana Engineering and Professional Colleges Management Association (TEPCMA) chairman N Goutham Rao said that all the member colleges of his organisation were called for participation in counselling.

He, however, said that he had no data on how many colleges were listed in SW1, SW2 and SW3 categories. The AFRC and the university granting affiliation would decide the category on the basis of performance and infrastructure of the colleges. Colleges with better performance and infrastructure would be put in SW1 category; minority and second rate colleges are listed in SW 2 category, while the remaining colleges are under SW3 category. Asked about the weeding out of colleges with poor infrastructure in the State, Telangana Technical Education Commissioner Sailaja Ram Iyer said that it would be decided by the State government and AFRC and she was only concerned with the admissions.

Urban Oriented Pattern

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : Anxiety over the discrepancies in the UPSC Preliminary Aptitude Test examination pattern is steadily growing with each passing day as the present pattern only gives advantage to Hindi-speaking candidates and urban aspirants. UPSC aspirants and educationists are questioning the commission’s urban-oriented examination pattern and have demanding the UPSC to revoke CSAT completely from the examination.

Aspirants from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana said that the orientation of the examination pattern is dangerously tilted towards urban students and hindering the rural aspirants from even qualifying the preliminary examination. An aspirant, Uday Kumar, said that disparity among the rural and urban students has been increased since the inception of this pattern. He said, “This examination pattern is completely benefiting urban candidates and putting rural students are at loss.” Noted civil service trainer R C Reddy said that UPSC authorities are testing the mathematical and technical skills rather than testing administrative skills of the appearing skills of the aspirants.

He said, “Out of 80 questions asked in CSAT papers only six pertain to administrative skillset and others are related to mathematics.” Another aspirant K Venkat Yadav said, “The Centre has taken a decision to remove 20 marks of the English comprehensive component that further cut shorts the marks of south Indian students, as it does not have negative markings. Giving 30 marks for qualification in Paper I and 70 marks in Paper II (CSAT) is unscientific.” Another civil service trainer Padmaja Rani said that the examination pattern is totally unscientific and added, “Students coming from urban background are getting more marks in CSAT because the questions are given in English and Hindi and south Indians students could not understand it in a short period of 90 seconds.

That is how they are filtered out of the competition in the beginning itself.” She further said that this disparity is leading to higher cut offs and decrease in the number of qualifying students from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. She said, “Questions asked in CSAT are only meant to assess mathematical and English languages skills and urban candidates obviously have an edge over rural students.” Aspirants informed that earlier around 70 students from AP and Telangana used to get selected in UPSC, but not this number has come down to 30. Students complain that different qualification marks of the Interview boards also an unscientific method. Students and aspirants are agitating against the alleged discriminatory examination patter of the UPSC in preliminary paper II which plays a decisive role in qualifying.

Telugu Desam leader R Krishnaiah and educationist R C Reddy extended their support to the cause of agitating students. R Krishnaiah said that any attempt to discriminate the south Indian and rural students and demanded to remove current UPSC chairman. Noted educationist R C Reddy said that most of the political leaders don’t know what exactly the crux of the problem is. He said that the CSAT was aimed at assessing technical and mathematical skills rather than assessing administrative skills. Students have been staging dharna at Indira Park for last three days demanding scrapping of CSAT completely or include all regional languages in the examination.

9

UPSC Aspirants Say

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : With the Centre deciding to delink English comprehensive language component of paper II in the civil services preliminary examination from grading, students in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have contended that the provision of delinking English would in no way benefit themnor those coming from other regional language backgrounds.

Though the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has not yet given a directive to notify the changes, students are in a dilemma over the conduct of the preliminary examination scheduled to be held on August 24. Agitating UPSC aspirants in the city said that the inclusion of Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) in preliminary examination itself was not a wise step. A UPSC aspirant Vinay Kumar said that if the Centre gives relaxation for Hindi language students, it would amount to depriving benefits (ranks/marks) to students from other regional language backgrounds.

He said, “English comprehension part contains questions in Hindi and English, and no other language and if at all any relaxation is given, Hindi students alone stand to benefit from the order.” He said that interpreting the tough English pattern would be a difficult job for students who studied in regional languages. IAS Academy’s Honorary Director Laxmaiah said that if the central government or UPSC wanted to give relaxation, it should include all regional languages in CSAT examination or else scrap it altogether. He said, “Including only Hindi in English comprehensive test amounts to discrimination amongst other regional languages and it lacks uniformity.”

The administrative efficiency must be tested, but not the language skills as far as selection of IAS officers is concerned, he added.
He said that the current decision-makers in UPSC have designed CSAT pattern in such a way that it values mathematics and language skills, but not administrative skills and general studies. Only students from IITs, IIMs and other top institutions can get through the preliminary examination using this pattern, he added.

Inspection Effect

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : With the Telangana government deciding to do away with tuition fee reimbursement and replacing it with Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST), admissions to private engineering colleges are likely to see a sharp decline this year. Adding to their woes is the nativity rule, which considers 1956 as the cut off year for availing FAST.

Stringent rules for FAST, inspections to spell doom for several colleges having poor infrastructure

Educationists said that the latest round of re-inspection of engineering colleges by Jawahar Lal Nehru Technological University task force officials in the State earlier this week would surely spell doom for many colleges, as most of them were found ‘not maintaining’ the required standards. They said that around 100 engineering colleges may have to shut down if inspections are conducted in a strict manner, as directed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The CM ordered these inspections after receiving concrete information that most of the engineering colleges did not fulfill the criteria of an ‘ideal engineering college’ as prescribed by the All-India Council for Technical Education.

At the same time, more than 120 of the 335 colleges in the State were on government radar for having poor infrastructure. The recently released Government Task Force report on the functioning of private engineering colleges has painted a grim picture of infrastructure in private engineering colleges across the state. Confirming these fears, Telangana Engineering Professional College Managements Association (TEPCMA) chairman N Goutham Rao said that 1956 as cut off would indeed have an adverse impact on admissions.

Reacting to the ongoing inspection of the engineering colleges, he said that inspection was already done in May 2014 and re-inspection was not necessary. He said that these days, parents and students themselves were inspecting the colleges before taking admissions and termed it as ‘social inspection’.

Last year, around 50 per cent seats in engineering colleges were left vacant due to the chaos surrounding the bifurcation of state. In 2012, around one lakh seats remained vacant, he said. TEPMCA member I Krishna Rao said that government has to give some time for colleges to update their infrastructure and to attain the standards prescribed by government. Telangana Government Junior College Lecturers Association president P Madhusudan Reddy said that several colleges may have to close down if inspection is done as per the rule book.