P V Narasimha Rao was most misunderstood !

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was the most misunderstood person in the political history of India and he himself was responsible for it.

Delivering a memorial lecture on ‘P V in Perspective’ at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), he said that despite P V holding several key posts during his public life spanning 60 years, not much was known about him to the general public.

He said P V had both good and bad endeavours as a politician and Prime Minister and he must be, also like any other political leader, understood as a common human being.

Jairam Ramesh said that P V had contributed to the country significantly during his tenure as a Prime Minister but he had committed a few mistakes, which haunt him even today. His significant contributions to the country were economic reforms or liberalisation of market, starting political process in Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and in Punjab besides formulating a foreign policy with ‘Look East’ component, he said. These policies have been followed by his successor Prime Ministers from I K Gujral, Deve Gowda, Manmohan Singh and even Narendra Modi, he said.

However, Jairam opined that P V’s biggest mistake was December 6, 1992, when Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished and he failed as a Prime Minister. “India could not come out of that catastrophic event even today,” he said.

Similarly, P V embroiled several leaders from different political parties and also his fellow party colleagues in various court cases that alienated him within the party as well, said Jairam Ramesh. Jairam said that he mentioned these historic events in his book on P V and said Indians must learn to evaluate their leaders on true basis rather than portraying them as saints.

He said P V had the remarkable quality of evaluating people and it was he who had appointed Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister in his Cabinet. He appreciated P V’s courage and resolution while running the minority government for five years.

He said, “Narasimha Rao was at his best in political management and I stand testimony to it. He not only managed the Opposition but also handled the forces within the party.” Jairam also complimented P V’s personal capabilities and said that he was the most scholarly, erudite and multilingual personality to enter public life.

Jairam recalled his experiences with P V Narasimha Rao during June, July and August of 1991 and said those three months had made remarkable contributions for the betterment of the country.

Senior journalist A Krishna Rao, who translated Jairam’s book, appreciated the efforts of Jairam for coming up with a book on Narasimha Rao and said P V did not get his due recognition in India’s political history. He said though he brought several reforms in governance, no one remembered him in that capacity.

Exposed !

Finally, the cat is out of the bag. The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, which had denied affiliation to 174 private engineering colleges on the grounds that they had failed to fulfill the prescribed norms, now stands exposed for its blatant favouritism.

The university authorities on Thursday evening uploaded on their website the inspection reports of the fact finding committee on various deficiencies detected in the engineering colleges in fulfilling the norms prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The inspection was conducted by the fact finding committee comprised of experts from BITS, Osmania University and other technical institution. The deficiencies include lack of adequate built-up area in the premises, violation of master plan specifications for construction of buildings, shortage of qualified staff, non-compliance of faculty-student ratio and payment of salaries to faculty as per AICTE pay scales.

"Inspection reports on private engineering colleges uploaded on varsity website; several colleges which got affiliation found to have violated AICTE norms"

Surprisingly, such deficiencies are found even in 125 private engineering colleges that were given affiliation by the University during 2014-15. It clearly showed that the university had blatantly favoured these select engineering colleges and deliberately disaffiliated 174 others, which too had similar deficiencies. Ironically, 46 of these 125 engineering colleges could not secure any admissions in the preceding year. And some of them have even written to the AICTE recently, offering to surrender several courses and seats which could not be filled up during the 2014-15 counselling.

It may be mentioned that METRO INDIA has carried a series of reports exposing this blatant favouritism of the JNTU-H in discriminating against several engineering colleges and favouring a select number of colleges, ostensibly under political and monetary pressures. Meanwhile, managements of disaffiliated engineering colleges have alleged that they were deliberately targeted by the University. Interestingly, the university has uploaded the details of inspection report when the next inspection is scheduled to commence in the first week of May. The report clearly shows that several colleges that were allowed to function were not up to the mark as per the norms.

Telangana Engineering and Professional Colleges Management Association chairman N Goutham Rao said that the JNTU-H wanted to close down all the colleges that were disaffiliated by it in the past. “Several other colleges with same deficiencies have been allowed to function while 174 colleges were disaffiliated on the same grounds. We were able to get the permission from Supreme Court but could not take up admissions last year.” If a yardstick of proper infrastructure, appropriate student-teacher ratio and others is used it should be used for equally for all, he said. He said that several of the 125 colleges that were allowed to function previous year by JNTUH were even worse than the colleges listed under disaffiliated.

An office bearer of an engineering college said the entire drama of disaffiliating the colleges on the pretext of having poor standards was created only to reduce the number of engineering colleges to reduce the burden of fee reimbursement scheme. He said many of the so-called top colleges or high standard 125 colleges take Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh per seat per annum, while the disaffiliated colleges charged only Rs 35,000.
In wake of the report that is uploaded on website of JNTUH, he asked how the colleges taking lesser fee could maintain the standards when the colleges that charged hefty fee failed to do so.

The inspection reports were uploaded on the JNTU-H website at a time when the AICTE has accorded conditional permission to the engineering colleges to function recently. AICTE has asked the colleges to fulfill the necessary criteria and apply for inspection once again. Earlier the JNTUH officials have not published the inspection report of the permitted 125 colleges. When the dis affiliated college managements protested and sought the intervention of High Court, JNTUH officials agreed to make the report public. However, the 174 colleges have lost their one year and revenue. The managements of the disaffiliated colleges ask that if standards were the bench mark then how colleges with poor standards were allowed to function.

A Tale of Salary

Relief for Engineering Colleges

 In a big relief for 162 private engineering colleges in Telangana, that were disaffiliated by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) and barred from admitting students in the current academic year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given them conditional permission to conduct admissions in 2015-16 academic year.

"Get conditional approval from AICTE to admit students in 2015-16"

In its latest order, the AICTE said the engineering colleges which could not admit students during 2014-15 due to their disaffiliation could conduct admissions for the coming academic year, provided they fulfill the mandatory norms and get the final nod from the JNTU-H. The AICTE directed the JNTU (H) to conduct fresh inspections to allow the barred colleges to get a chance to conduct admissions and to begin the exercise from April 20.

The AICTE has asked the engineering colleges to apply for the affiliation to JNTUH afresh before April 20 and to get ready for inspections. The order followed a representation made by Telangana Engineering and Professional College Management Association to the Centre. Association chairman N Goutham Rao said that a delegation of engineering college managements had given a representation on this issue to Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani and AICTE chairman giving a promise to fulfill the norms prescribed by ministry and the technical institution.

He said, “We were given permission to conduct admissions in the coming academic year and we have submitted an affidavit in the AICTE and HRD ministry to meet the norms.” The JNTU-H would submit a report to the AICTE and the State government after conducting an inspection of the engineering colleges. The colleges would then be permitted to take admissions for the academic year 2015-16.

JNTU-H Registrar N V Ramana Rao said the inspection of the colleges that were not allowed to participate in the EAMCET 2014 would be done in the first week of May 2015. He said only the report of the inspection would decide the fate of colleges that were given conditional permission. Interestingly, several engineering and pharmacy colleges have applied for reduction in the number of seats to the AICTE as they do not possess the required infrastructure. About 218 colleges out of total 315 have applied for cutting down the number of seats they were allotted. The number of seats that would be reduced in the coming academic year would be around 42,000. The EAMCET 2015 is scheduled to be held in the second week of May in Telangana and results would be declared in June.

New School Syllabus in Telangana

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has given his consent to bring radical changes in the school syllabus by giving due credence to Telangana history, art, culture and literature. The changes in the syllabus were advised by the experts committee set up by the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) which suggested that chapters about the history of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh should be replaced with that of Telangana history, culture, architecture, art and literature.

With the CM’s consent, the text books of Class I to 10 would have the syllabus designed by the state authorities from the coming academic year 2015-16. The changed syllabus would have couplets and poems of native poets of Telangana besides historical, architectural and artistic parts of Telangana. The new syllabus proposed long ago, is awaiting CM’s nod for its implementation. 

However, after a recent meeting held at Secretariat attended by state government’s cultural advisor N V Ramana Chary, SCERT director S Jagannath Reddy and other officials from school education department, the proposals were discussed at length before sending them to the chief minister.

The history books would also include the history of Telangana dating back to the induction of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union and all the major events up to the formation of Telangana. History of movements during Nizam’s government, Hyderabad’s merger, first democratic government, agitations pertaining to Mulki rules, role of Osmania University students, 1969 Telangana movement, 1972 Jai Andhra movement would be included in the history. 

Interestingly, the syllabus of Social Studies also includes the details of State Government’s schemes pertaining to tanks and ponds (Mana Vuru Mana Cheruvu) and this aspect also occupy a significant space of the syllabus. Major breakthroughs during the Telangana movement were also made the part of syllabus. Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam criticized the TRS government and alleged that KCR was busy in incorporating his own history in the name of Telangana history. TDP spokesperson N Narsi Reddy said that almost 1,200 students have sacrificed their lives for the cause of Telangana.

Undermining students’ sacrifice and omission of the participation of poets, artists and other people’s version in Telangana history was shameful, he said. Reddy said that history would not forgive people who were indulging in praising the Chief Minister K Chandra Sekhar Rao while ignoring the actual martyrs of Telangana.

In Pursuit of Better Remuneration

The demand for enhancement of remuneration by evaluators of Intermediate and SSC examination papers is gaining strength for quite some time now. After the recent protest by Intermediate examination evaluators at a spot evaluation center in city, teachers too have also put forth their demands for enhancement of perks. In case of Intermediate paper, the authorities were able to quell the demand tentatively, but school teachers have already given their list of demands and asked the government to enhance their remuneration. 

-The authorities were able to quell the demand tentatively, but school teachers have already given their list of demands and asked the government to enhance their remuneration. Evaluation for the Intermediate examination papers has been going on whereas the spot evaluation for SSC examination papers would commence on Saturday at two major centers in the city.
-“We had called for a strike from April 2 to 6 but in vain and called off the strike in the larger interest of the students. However, we will continue to put forward our demands”

Evaluation for the intermediate examination papers has been going on whereas the spot evaluation for SSC examination papers would commence on April 11 at two major centers in the city. Private Lecturers Organization of Telangana (PLOT) president G Narasimha Reddy who is on a fast demanding enhancement of remuneration said that out of the total number of evaluators, about 80 per cent of them were private junior lecturers. He said that private lecturers have been working on meager allowances and perks for the evaluation. 

“We had called for a strike from April 2 to 6 but in vain and called off the strike in the larger interest of the students. However, we will continue to put forward our demands,” he informed. Reddy is on a hunger strike at Pragathi Mahavidyalaya campus where the spot evaluation is going on. The evaluation for Intermediate examination papers is being conducted at five different centers in the city. On the other hand teachers and teacher unions are also demanding that the perks must be enhanced. 

Teacher organizations argue that after the implementation of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), teachers would have to take more strain while correcting answer sheets. Telangana Teachers’ Federation president A Ramchandram said that since the examination pattern was new, evaluators must also be provided with increased remunerations accordingly. Evaluation for the SSC examination papers would commence from April 11 at two centers in city. One is at Secunderabad and one at Dilsukhnagar. 

At the same time, teachers have also demanded for early payment of evaluation remuneration unlike the usual practice. State Teachers’ Union state secretary Abdul Samad said that generally teachers don’t get their remuneration on time. He said, “authorities take our bank account numbers, but do not credit the remuneration on time. It takes some five to six months for remuneration to be credited into our account.” He said that TA should also be increased for teachers who come from long distances to the spot evaluation centers.

RTE Implementation in Abeyance

 Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh continue to lag in implementing the Right to Education Act (RTE), despite its enactment five years back. Even basic requirements for the implementation of the Act have not been met by the two states during the past five years. When the state was not bifurcated, several teacher unions, education activists and student unions approached the state authorities to implement RTE, but they could not achieve any breakthrough.

The Act was intended at providing education to school drop-outs, students from poor families including SC, ST, minorities and other backward communities. As per the norms of the Act all the state governments were mandated to provide basic education to the children aged between 5 to 14 years. The law also mandated the private managements to allot 25 per cent of the seats for poor students.

Interestingly, the deadline for the proper implementation of the Act was March 31, 2015, in the moral book of the Act in the year 2010 when the RTE was enacted. However, so far the implementation of this Act is on the backburner in many aspects. Accordin to Right to Education Forum’s state convener Ch Murali Mohan, a survey conducted by the forum revealed that percentage of RTE implementation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is only 9 per cent. 

He said, “It is disgusting for both the states that such a meager per cent of implementation is recorded.” He said that as per the analysis of 2011 census analysis by the UNICEF, it was revealed that Hyderabad had highest number of child labors in the state. City has 80,000, Ranga Reddy district has 75,000 and Mahabubnagar district has about 68,000 child labours, he said. He criticised the Telangana government for not giving any importance to such an important act and said that one can file PIL against the state as the RTE was a mandatory compulsion on the state governments.

Telangana government instead, has been talking about KG to PG scheme for education but allocated only Rs 25 crores in the previous and current state budget, he said. Interestingly, the previous united AP governments have stonewalled the implementation by showing the deadline of March 31, 2015 and now Telangana government shirking its responsibility by saying that it does not have data and was new into the power.

It was learnt that the Telangana government had sought six months’ time from the Centre to implement the Act completely but there was no communication from the Centre has been reported in this regard.
He said Telangana government appeared to be not keen on this issue and argued that the number of teachers was more than students and needed rationalisation. 

PRTU president P Venkat Reddy said that the Telangana government utterly failed in the implementation of RTE in many aspects. The state government was failed especially in curbing the corrupt practices of collecting huge amounts as donation and capitation fees by private education institutions.

Facts and Figures
1.Right to Education Act was approved in Lok Sabha on July 2, 2009.
2.It was passed in Rajya Sabha on July 20, 2009.
3.It came into force from April 1, 2010.
4.RTE has completed its five years on April 1, 2015.
5.Moral book of act says that all the states would be having appropriate framework to implement RTE by March 31, 2015.
6.Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states lag behind in implementation with only 9 per cent.
7.A survey was done in 20 states with 50 government schools in each state shows that implementation of act was thrown to the winds.

Encountering these people would be justified!

Muslim community elders have demand state government and police officials to take serious action against people indulging in facilitating contract marriages of poor girls from Old City with foreign nationals. The religious leaders have also condemned the rising number of such marriages in the city and held the constitutional agencies responsible for such incidents. 

The recent incident, in which an Omani national went into contract marriage with a minor girl in the city, was facilitated by a local Qazi and travel agent. Generally, these agents lure foreign nationals by offering brides from poor families that too for a certain period and earn huge money from them. The agents also convince the poor parents by promising them huge remuneration before performing ‘Nikah’ for avoiding legal glitches.

Lack of check on such marriages is leading to contract marriages, thus exploitation of the young and poor girls in the city. Tameer-e-Millat Secretary Maulana Abdul Raheem Qureshi said that the root cause of these incidents was greed for quick money. He said that the government should take pro-active role in curbing the activities of middlemen and Qazis who perform such marriages. He lamented, “the middlemen and irresponsible Qazis are responsible for exploitation of poor families in the name of marriages.” 

They have made the institution of marriage a joke and tool of exploitation. It is a matter of serious concern that despite of strict laws people who facilitate go undetected, he added. In the past, people from West Asian countries used to marry women from Hyderabad and provided them a graceful life in their respective countries. However, for past ten to fifteen years it has been seen that marriages of city women have become a mere ‘business deal’ he observed.

As per the existing laws, foreign nationals marrying local women must inform the government authorities and possess permission from their respective governments. Since they do not possess any document, they prefer to contact middlemen for ‘contract marriages’. Noted Islamic scholar Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin observed that such incidents of exploitation were occurring frequently due to lack of proper implementation of laws that have been formulated to keep a check on such marriages.

He said, “Laws and regulations must be implemented strictly and then only we can expect to save people from being exploited by opportunists in the community.” He advised the community members not to fall prey to the allurements of middlemen.On the other hand police officials say that they have taken all possible steps to stop these kinds of incidents in the city. 

DCP South Zone V Satyanarayana said that police officials have even booked Qazis under the PD Act and opened history sheets, but in vain. He however said, “There has been a fear among middlemen and people indulging in fake marriage. The menace has not been completely controlled. Educating poor families and young girls is the need of the hour.”

Chancellors for Each University

The State government is mulling several amendments to the State Universities Act in order to work on its proposals of appointing chancellors for each university in the State. The government wanted to streamline the functioning of all the State universities and strengthen the academic activities carried out in each university. Currently, the State governor is acting as the chancellor for all the universities as per the provisions of State Universities Act. 

According to government officials, senior academicians, professors and experts in education would be appointed as chancellors of the varsities. The government wanted to streamline the functioning of all the State universities and strengthen the academic activities carried out in each university

Universities with Chancellors
-Kaloji Narayan Rao Health University – Chief Minister is Chancellor
-Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology (RGUKT) - Raji Reddy is Chancellor
-Nalsar Law University- Chief Justice of High Court Kalyanjyoti Sengupta is Chancellor

Universities without VCs
-Osmania University – Hyderabad
-Kakatiya University -Warangal
-JNTU- Hyderabad
-Dr B R A O U- Hyderabad
-Palamur University-Mahabubnagar
-Telangana University-Nizamabad
-Prof Jayashankar Agricultural University

Universities having VC
-Mahatma Gandhi University -Nalgonda
-Satavahana University-Karimnagar

The Chief Minister is the chancellor of Kaloji Narayan Rao Health University, the chief justice of High Court is chancellor for Nalsar Law University and academician A Raji Reddy is the chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology (RGUKT). According to officials, senior academicians, professors and experts in education would be appointed as chan cellors of the varsities. 

The government was acting on the reports submitted by officials that almost all the universities in the State were reeling under several crises which includes academic disturbances, groupism among faculty members and students, flutters created by student groups and other issues. Telangana Higher Education Council vice chairman S Mallesham said that the issue was at a preliminary stage, and no direction has been issued by the government. 

However, he said that other states in the country have separate chancellors for state universities. He said, “In Telangana, few universities have chancellors and this is not a surprise. Efforts are underway to appoint vice-chancellors for universities in existing vacancies.” The government is keen on appointing chancellors, an advisory post with five years fixed tenure.

Private Travel Agencies Exploit Haj Pilgrims

 Private travel agencies in Hyderabad are fleecing Haj aspirants every year in lakhs by taking advantage of the large number of seats allocated to them by the central government. The dream of luxurious travel and completion of Haj by private travel agencies is gradually turning in to a nightmare for pilgrims, who have chosen their services over the government-supported Haj facilities through the Haj committee.

“Private travel agents don’t provide proper food, accommodation and travel facilities which they promise in their advertisements or before leaving for Haj.”

In most of the instances, proper facilities are not provided to pilgrims as promised before leaving for Haj, and are left to fend for themselves in the foreign country despite paying huge money. The private agencies attract these aspirants with ‘beautiful’ promises and under different categories like deluxe, super deluxe and so on. Private agencies are charging about Rs 3 to 4 lakh from each pilgrim and in some cases the charges are as high as Rs 4.5 lakh for each pilgrim.

On the contrary, the charges for pilgrims who go for Haj through the state Haj Committee remains is between Rs 1.60 and Rs 1.80 lakh for similar arrangements and facilities. One of the victims of private tour operators is the Officer on Special Duty Elections Faheem Saberi who went for Haj last year with his spouse. Explaining his ordeal, he said that they paid Rs 3.5 lakh per head for Haj, but whatever promised to him was not provided.

He said, “Private travel agents don’t provide proper food, accommodation and travel facilities which they promise in their advertisements or before leaving for Haj. We were forced to live in a congested hotel room in a 14-storey building with only two lifts.” Declining to reveal the name of the tour operator he said that he has written a complaint letter to the Ministry of External Affairs to look into this matter and come to the rescue of people who are being exploited.

He said, “It is the right time that the central government decreases the quota for private agencies and increases the pilgrims’ quota to the state Haj committees in the country.” The central government has allocated 40,000 slots for pilgrims to the private travel agencies across the country and agencies of the state bagged around 2,300 slots this year. On the other hand, the state haj committee was allotted 2,700 slots out of which only 1,223 seats were left open for draw this year. The remaining seats come under reserved categories. 

About 15,000 people have applied for the mere 1,223 slots for Haj 2015 and 12 persons are vying for each seat. Another victim of the private travel agencies Mumtaz Ahmed a retail businessman said that it was his worst decision to go for Haj by a private agency last year. He claimed to have paid Rs 4 lakh for Haj and expected luxurious arrangements by the agency. He said, “The facilities provided by the private agency were not even close to the facilities provided by the Haj Committee of the state.”

Charges under Private Agencies
-Private Agencies charge Rs 3.5 to Rs 5 lakh per head
-Poor facilities and don’t keep the promises
-Take the pilgrims by cheap airlines as against the promised one of Saudi Airlines
-Promise food but don’t provide proper food at right time
-Pilgrims are left in lurch during Haj rituals

Requirement for the Travel
Agency license
-Labor License issued by state government/municipal authorities
-Trade License issued by municipal body
-At least three years’ experience in Haj pilgrims’ service
-Should have turnover of Rs 1 crore per annum in air travel service
-Should deposit Rs 25 lakh in the Ministry of External Affairs
-Trained staff

Rationalization of Schools in Telangana

The State government has decided to modify GO No.6 intended to ‘rationalise’ government schools across the State from the next academic year, though certain unions of teachers had expressed apprehensions that schools having poor student strength would be eventually closed down. The GO No 6, released in September 2014, was kept in abeyance, following protests by teachers unions. 

The State government has since decided to introduce some changes in the instructions given under the GO No 6, before going ahead with the rationalisation plan. The earlier instructions laid down benchmarks for allowing government-run primary and high schools to function. It was decided that high schools with less than 75 students and primary schools with less than 20 students should be closed down and such students sent to other nearby school.

Inspections in the previous year revealed that about 300 high schools and 2,000 primary schools would come under the axe, going by the parameters set by the State government. However, after fierce opposition from teachers’ unions, the State government stepped back on this issue earlier. The issue of rationalisation of schools and teachers is again under discussion as the demand for DSC has been increasing for some time now. Director and Commissioner of School Education T Chiranjeevulu said that currently the GO was not being implemented.

However, it could come into force with some changes after the current academic year. He declined to speak on the changes that would be made to rules under the GO No 6. The Telangana Teachers Joint Action Committee (TTJAC) has alleged that the State government wanted to shut down State-run schools in the name of ‘rationalisation’. The TTJAC chairman, P Venkat Reddy, said that the government should instead increase facilities for rural students so that they could reach the school. 

The government should see how many private schools were being run in the same locality or village. “The government should rationalise private schools before preparing to close government schools. Each village must have a public school,” he said. He said that the fall in the number of students at government schools did not happen overnight, but over a period of time because of the official apathy and neglect by successive governments.

Representatives of teacher unions also argue that shutting down any government school was against the Right to Education Act (RTE) and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Negligent EFLU Management

Students are seething in anger against the authorities of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) which has seldom been on time in conducting entrance examinations. Their omissions and commissions have put the students seeking admissions into different courses at the receiving end. The EFLU administration failed to conduct the entrance examinations as per the notified scheduled. 

Students paying high price for lapses

The changes effected in the schedule often without following the due procedures had cost the opportunity of the students to pursue higher studies. The schedule given in the hall tickets could not be honoured in respect of the entrance exam for different courses during past two years. Adding further more to the travails of the students, they were given wrong question papers. Even the timing of the entrance examinations were also mentioned wrongly in the question papers. 

There was often a mismatch between the courses for which entrance examinations held and the timings mentioned on the hall tickets. This happened in the case of MA MCJ examination. Those students who failed to turn up were not allowed to appear again for the examination.
Telangana Students Association (TSA) activists said that in one case the authorities have given question paper of previous year and realized their mistake after lapse of one hour. 

Later the management announced that the examination for the same paper would be conducted on next day. But the students coming from Kerala and Bangalore did not attend it as they have already reserved the return tickets to return to their home towns.

Sweeping Changes in Teacher Education

 The curriculum of the Education studies in the state is all set to undergo major changes from the next academic year as the duration of the Bachelor of Education (B Ed) course would be raised to two years and other changes would also be introduced. 

These changes have been under consideration for a long time after National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has formed the guidelines. The council was also contemplating to change the structure of syllabus and inclusions of more topics in the teacher education studies.

Major changes include the enhancement of course duration from one year to two years and alterations in examination pattern. As per the decisions taken by the School Education Department, the examination papers for the Education Studies (B Ed) in the next academic year would be 12 unlike 6 in the pat.

At the same time the duration of internship or Teaching Practice would be for 20 weeks (6 months) instead of 8 weeks (two months). Higher Education Council Chairman T Papi Reddy said that Centre was contemplating these changes for a long time and National Council for Teacher Education has already informed the changes. 

He said that changes were being introduced to strengthen the teacher education. He said that if a teacher has been trained well, he/she can educate the students in a better way. He said that notification for B Ed would be released soon and entrance examination would be conducted in June this year. These changes also come with some other strict norms for students. They would be asked to complete B Ed within three years from the date of admission. Internship or practical teaching session would include interaction with students and with community, skill development and communication development. 

The teacher training period would conclude with the presentation of papers by the candidates. On the other hand the examinations would be conducted semester wise and the number of papers would be 12 for two years.

From a beginner to Selfish

Industry Specific ITIs

With an intention to provide trained people as per the requirements of industry, State government is going ahead with a plan to establish industry-specific Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) across the ten districts of the State.

Efforts are on to change the syllabus to make it suitable to train the students in acquiring skills needed by the industry. The Technical Education wing of the government is contemplating to link them to the industries as well. Government says that such institutes would ensure a rise in the number of employable youngsters from the semi-educated rural youth in the future.

"While announcing the agricultural ITI, Chief Minister has also hinted that several other such institutes would come up in other districts of the State"

The Industrial Training Institutes were established with an intention to train the youngsters in taking up the technical jobs in the industries. However, existing curriculum was not meeting the present day standards of the industry and therefore created a need to relook into it. Government sources said that industry-specific training centres would come up one by one in due course and the process has already begun in this direction. Each centre would train the students in a particular sector. 

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has recently sanctioned an Agricultural ITI for the Yellareddy mandal in Nizamabad district. This ITI would help train the students in agriculture related technology. 
The construction of Yellareddy ITI would begin very soon. While announcing the agricultural ITI, Chief Minister has also hinted that several other such institutes would come up in other districts of the State.

The districts that were identified for industrial specific ITIs are Medak, Karimnagar, Khammam, Adilabad and Mahabubnagar. ITI with Forest as core subject would come up in in Adilabad and Irrigation and Electricity related one would come up in Mahabubnagar.

Mission Kakatiya to Revive and Restore Tanks

Mohammed Younus / Nizamabad : Mission Kakatiya, the historic programme of the Telangana government to revive and restore over 46,000 tanks and other water bodies across the State, kicked off on Thursday amidst a festive atmosphere at Sadasivanagar village in Nizamabad district. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao formally launched his government’s flagship programme by participating in the removal of silt from a village tank. Accompanied by Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and other Cabinet colleagues, he unveiled a pylon to mark the occasion.

Launches his flagship programme Mission Kakatiya;
warns against irregularities in implementation of scheme

The Chief Minister blamed it on previous rulers of the united Andhra Pradesh for the destruction of lakes and water bodies in the last six decades, though earlier invaders had spared the lakes. “The kings, who had ruled the region, protected the lakes for abundant produce and we salute the Kings of Reddy and Kakatiya dynasties for their great contribution for keeping alive the chain of tanks that catered to the crops needs,” KCR said and added that the government was committed to bring back that sheen on the faces of farmers. He asked the public representatives to be with the people and officials while carrying out works of Mission Kakatiya and ensure successful completion of the project by taking it up as a challenging task. 

He said, “I urge upon all the public representatives to be with people alongside the Kakatiya Mission works as soon as the budget session ends.” Calling upon farmers to liberally use the de-silted nutrient-rich mud from the tanks and improve their yield, he asked them to ensure that quality of works was not compromised at any level. The Chief Minister called upon the people and public representatives to participate in the Mission Kakatiya project on a similar scale as they did during the Telangana movement. 

He said, “Every one took part in the Telangana movement and we succeeded. We should emerge winners yet again by completing the task of reviving all the tanks in the state.” On maintaining standards and quality of the lake works, KCR said the officials were directed to blacklist the contractors who failed to comply with the norms. He also warned that those who indulge in irregularities in the lakes restoration works would be sent to jails. Online tenders would be called for transparency and those eligible could get the bids to complete the works on time with quality he said. The Chief Minister announced several sops, including Rs 1 crore from CM Relief Fund, besides the funds allotted in Mission Kakatiya. 

KCR also sanctioned 11 sub stations with 33/11 KV capacity, ITI and 100 bed hospital for Tadwai Mandal, Nagireddypet, Malthummeda, Agri Polytechnic College between Medak and Nizamabad, Community and marriage halls for Muslims and Christians. Earlier, he formally inaugurated the tank revival scheme by digging up the abandoned tank at Sadasivanagar along with state ministers T Harish Rao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Yella Reddy legislator E Ravinder Reddy and other party leaders. 

Speaking on the occasion, irrigation minister T Harish Rao said that the accumulated mud in the tanks for long time would be useful for the agricultural lands. He said, “Farmers must make of use the silt and mud taken out of these tanks and abandoned ponds. It will help them improve their productivity. Farmers can decrease the use of pesticides and the yield will up by 30 per cent for each crop during the coming years.” He said that the idea of Mission Kakatiya was a historic moment in the state after a thousand years. 

He said, “Kakatiya rulers were concerned about the people and they dug up several thousand tanks in the state and the TRS government is reviving all these abandoned tanks to give a push to agriculture in the state,” he said. The minister informed that every year 20 per cent of the identified tanks would be revived. “In Nizamabad, around 3,000 tanks and ponds were identified by the government during a survey of which 651 tanks would be preserved in the first phase,” he said.

Ensuring transparency in execution of de-silting works, the minister said that tenders for nearly 2,210 tanks have been allotted out of the 46,447 tanks that would be revived during the first phase. Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that selection of Sadasivanagar village for the launch of Kakatiya Mission was a wise and relevant step as the area was not supported by any water project or canal and solely depended on ground water or village tanks.

The Chief Minister thanked several people who came up with donations for the Mission Kakatiya project, including Mohan Rao from Karimnagar district for donating Rs 1.5 crore for the project and adopted four lakes in the district.

On the Cost of Higher Education

 Education experts have asked the Centre to re-examine its proposal to ease the norms for granting funds to the higher learning centres, including universities and deemed universities as it could deteriorate the higher education system further. The Human Resource Development Ministry has recently in its directive said that the 12 (B) status would be eased for granting funds.This status is given to the universities by University Grants Commission (UGC) for granting funds. 

The status is given if the university fulfills certain parameters prescribed by the UGC. The parameters include proper infrastructure, maintenance of student-teacher ratio, qualified faculty, laboratories and others. As a convention, the UGC does not grant funds for research and development activities to those universities that do not fulfill the criteria. Educationists from the State argue that not a single university across the nation including national and State was among the top 100 universities in the world and easing the norms further would surely damage the repute of such institutions.

Vinod Pavarala from University of Hyderabad said that allowing the under facilitated and low infrastructure universities to function would serve no purpose but waste of money. He said that this would go against the decision of the Central government in giving importance to higher education. He asked, “How can the Centre see positive change in higher education by easing the norms?” He said that without streamlining higher education, a nation’s development could not be discussed. 

Goutham Murthy from OU said that it was not sure as to how the proposed one-time comfort would work to boost research in the universities. He opined that enhancing infrastructure and other pre-requisites must be the first priority of the Central government. Universities are rated and assessed only if they possess 12 (B) status issued by the UGC. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) also conducts the assessments only for the varsities having 12 (B) status.

On the other hand, former UGC chairman R K Agarwal said that research activity in Indian higher learning institutions was very less compared to its other Asian counterparts. He said that he does not see any mistake in easing the 12 (B) status to varsities for research purpose. He said, “The Centre wants to ease it for only once and that is to support the varsities financially in good faith.”

Vacant for long time

Though the state government has announced perks for the state employees, thousands of sanctioned posts are still lying vacant under different categories for a long time. The ambiguous stand of the state government over the filling of state and district level posts has begun worrying thousands of unemployed youth in the state. As per the data available with the government, about 76,000 posts are vacant in the state.

Lack of any progress in the direction of providing employment is worrying many educated youth who have been waiting for good news from the government. Though the government has constituted public service commission for the state and minor changes in the syllabus have also been done, there seems no progress on this issue.

Lack of any progress in the direction of providing employment is worrying many educated youth who have been waiting for good news from the government. Though the government has constituted public service commission for the state and minor changes in the syllabus have also been done, there seems no progress on this issue. Unemployed youth who have been preparing for different examinations are waiting for early notification for jobs. Youth feel that the state government was delaying the process in the name of syllabus change and other things.

K Rajendra Kumar, a post graduate who has been waiting for the government notification said that whatever the state government doing for syllabus change was good but it should release the job notification on priority. He said, “State government has been doing the things with priority which were neither announced in the manifesto nor were the agenda of Telangana movement during several years.” He said that unemployment was the major cause of worry for the people of Telangana and it needed to be addressed with priority.

Apart from the state level and zonal level posts in the state, the bifurcation of employees would also create some more vacancies in various departments. As per the data available in various departments employees from 44 departments have given their options and that also needs completion. Employees of other 110 departments have not yet given their options. On the other hand district level posts are also not filled despite there is hurdle coming in the way of filling these vacancies.

Moreover, the recruitment of teachers has also been the matter of serious concern for thousands of educated youth in the back drop of government contemplating to go for rationalization of teachers across the state. However, the order for rationalization was kept in abeyance after the tough stand of Teacher Unions in the state.

Engineering Colleges Seek Seat Reduction

Several engineering colleges in Telangana are coming forward to reduce the number of seats and courses, following the tough stand taken by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to improve quality of engineering education. The JNTU-H officials have already disaffiliated about 140 colleges for not meeting prescribed standards and for failing to maintain conditions as per the norms in the current academic year.

Managements of several engineering colleges are apprehensive that the university may not allow them to participate in engineering counselling, this year too. In the beginning of the current academic year, the engineering college managements had to run from pillar to post for being part of engineering counseling process. However, they got the permission to participate in counselling for admissions through the Supreme Court verdict much later. However, these colleges could not fill the seats available with them even in the second phase of counselling. 

Of 95,000 seats available in different courses in such colleges only 35,000 seats were filled. The colleges were disaffiliated earlier this year on the ground that they had fallen short of the prescribed norms as was detected during the inspection of an expert team appointed by the Supreme Court. Till now about 50 engineering colleges have approached the university authorities with a request to reduce the number of seats and courses. JNTU-H officials have confirmed receiving such applications during last three weeks. 

An official in the varsity on condition of anonymity said that college managements were in tremendous pressure and they might lose the opportunity to participate in counselling this time too if they don’t follow the norms. He said that several colleges have approached the university to cut short their number of allotted seats and do away with the less sought after courses. Telangana Engineering and Professional College Managements Association chairman N Gautham Rao said that they wanted to streamline the activity as soon as possible. 

He said, “The major reason for applications for seats reduction application is that seats are being left vacant during counselling. On the other hand JNTU-H is asking for rationalising the facilities in accordance with the number of students.” So far 30 engineering colleges applied for seat reduction and 19 colleges for dropping of certain courses. As a whole, about 25,000 engineering seats would likely be decreased for the academic year 2015-16.