Changes underway

Mohammed Younus / hyderabad : The possible changes in the pattern of Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) would surely help the Telugu students in securing good ranks and possibly break the barriers for South Indian students altogether. Students from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and other southern states were agitating against the new pattern of examination in Preliminary examination of UPSC which was introduced in the year 2011.

With an intention to seek the views of all party leaders Central government has recently convened a meeting with leaders of all the opposition parties to come to an amicable solution on this issue. The aggrieved students claim that the second paper of the CSAT, which tests among other things, logical reasoning, analytical ability, basic numeracy and English language comprehension, puts rural students and those from non-English medium school background, at a disadvantage.

Terming it a sensitive issue the Centre wanted to include the views of all political parties and come to a solution. It was decided that all the party leaders would give their opinion on five issues related to CSAT exam including on continuation of English language comprehension skill, reduced weightage of analytical component, to make paper-II qualifying criteria and to revert back to optional paper. 

Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) would prepare a comprehensive report on the structure and pattern of the civil services examinations, held for several years in the country and changes made over a period of time in a day or two and would provide it to all the party leaders. Students and educationists from Telugu speaking and southern states were against the present pattern alleging that it was creating North-South or Urban-Rural divide amongst the students.

A civil aspirant from the state M Ajay Kumar said that hundreds of students were deprived of getting into the competition at the very initial stage in preliminary examinations by virtue of CSAT. He said, “If Centre was of the opinion to make the changes in the pattern, it should weed out the CSAT completely or else it should be amended in such a way that all the students could be able to attempt it.”

During the recently held preliminary examinations only 535 students from AP and TS have qualified out of 29,500 attempted. The decline in the number of students qualifying from these states was witnessed ever since the new pattern was introduced. Anyhow, the Centre’s stance to seek the opinion from all party leaders may yield some solution to this problem which was reportedly creating disparities among urban and rural students and was criticized by the experts and educationists.

No staff No funds, JNAFAU Sulks

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Lack of staff and other necessary requisites in the Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU) has led to holding back of the status of 12 (B) to the varsity by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and also denial of funds for the research and development. UGC gives the 12 (B) status to the universities for their development on the condition of fulfilling some requisites. 

UGC gives the 12 (B) statusto the universities for their development on the condition of fulfilling some requisites. According to the norms, each department should have one professor, an associate professor and two assistant professors. Ironically, none of the five departments in the varsity have been provided with such staff.

Despite several representations being made by the university staff, the present in charge vice chancellor was not recruiting the required staff for no reasons. University has 2 (F) status allowing it to have recognition. According to the norms, each department should have one professor, an associate professor and two assistant professors. Ironically, none of the five departments in the varsity have been provided with such staff. Telangana Teachers Welfare Association president S Pradeep Kumar said that due to lack of 12 (B) status, National Assessment and Accreditation Committee (NAAC) has not visited the campus from the inception.

He also said that lack of 12 (B) status has brought down the value of certificates being given to the students. He alleged that no audit was been conducted on the accounts of the university since it would lead to the inspection of financial matters of the institution. He said that this was one of the reasons for not taking up the recruitment. The fine arts college used to be an affiliate to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and it was made university itself few years back and this has led to no control on the affairs of the institution. 

Other staff members said that several complaints have been lodged with Lokayukta against the in charge VC JNAFAU Non-Teaching Association secretary K Mahipal Reddy said that teachers are being recruited on contract basis rather than through the well laid rules. He said, “Around 80 contract employees have been appointed in the architecture and planning department of the varsity flouting the norms.” The professors in the varsity demanded to focus on the activities going on in the campus as it was incurring heavy monetary and academic losses.

-Established in the year 2008 by state act separating it from JNTUH
-Only 2(F) status from UGC has been conferred
-Five major departments were sanctioned along with other self-finance courses
-Teaching staff in all the departments is inadequate 
-Varsity was instructed to recruit the required staff in all departments
-UGC has not conferred 12 (B) status, owing to laxity in recruitment
-No funds have been released from UGC till date for research and academic purposes
-The University has not been accredited by NAAC so far
-Certificates of the students would not be considered authentic in future
-Vice Chancellor reportedly not taking up recruitment only to save her vested interests
-Research activities are absent due to lack of funds

Uncertain DSC in TS !

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Uncertainty is looming large over the issuing of DSC (District Selection Committee) notification for the recruitment of teaching posts in Telangana State as the government officials do not even have the information regarding the vacant posts in various districts. The Andhra Pradesh government has already released DSC notification recently.

The Telangana government does not even have any plan to release the notification in near future. Earlier, the State government announced to rationalize schools and staff instead of appointing new teaching staff through DSC. However, the government went back on the proposal after an adverse reaction from the Teachers fraternity and aspirant students from across the state. The government’s version about appointments at government run schools was that most of the schools were running without students and there was no need of further recruitment.

When the dust settled after much hue and cry over the proposed rationalization of government schools and teachers, which could have resulted in the closure of several hundred schools, the government has not given any instructions to appoint the teaching staff yet. Telangana School Education department Joint Director P V Srihari said that they have not received any instruction from the concerned ministry and no preparations were being underway for the release of DSC notification in the state. He said, “We don’t even have the information that how many seats are vacant in the state run schools.” 

Previously DSC notification was used to be issued in the year 2012 and after that because of various reasons the practice was not being followed. Thousands of Teacher’s Eligibility Test (TET) qualified candidates have been waiting for the recruitment notification in the State. On the other hand teachers’ unions re crying foul over the delay in the release of recruitment notification. These unions have also proposed an amicable solution to the state government’s proposal of rationalization.

Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation state president A Narsi Reddy said that around 1,500 seats are vacant in the government run schools across the state. He said, “We have suggested the state government to set up ‘Model Primary Schools’ in the rural areas covering several villages besides implementing rationalization in such a way that spare teachers could be shifted to these centres and new teachers could be recruited through DSC.”

All is not well !

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad: All is not well at the Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU) with staff associated with the varsity alleging that the Vice-Chancellor and Principal in the varsity swindled funds meant for the development of university. It was alleged that the financial irregularities in the university could be as high as Rs 200 crore since 2008, the year when the university was incepted by an act of the state government. The professors and faculty members alleged that Vice Chancellor P Padmavathi and Architecture & Planning department principal D Vijay Kishore were responsible for the swindling of funds, thus incurring a huge monetary losses to the university.

"The professors and faculty members alleged that Vice Chancellor P Padmavathi and Architecture & Planning department principal D Vijay Kishore were responsible for swindling of funds, thus causing huge monetary losses to the university."

According to Academic & Planning director S Pradeep Kumar, major financial irregularities were taking place in the Industrial Consultancy Services, Collection of fees from the students against norms, running of courses without proper approvals and appointment of contract staff. Seeking a detailed enquiry into the monetary irregularities in the University, he said that Vijay Kishore was collecting huge fees from students against norms. He also said that several courses run by the Architecture department were not even permitted by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Pradeep kumar said that several complaints were made in the past and representations against these financial irregularities to the state Governor, Chief Minister and other political leaders. “It is like the whole show in the varsity is run by the VC and Vijay Kishore”, he added.
Explaining the ordeal of the misuse of funds in the University by the VC and Principal, another faculty member and International Relations director at varsity S N Vikas said that the appointments were made on a contract basis in Architecture department without any eligibility criteria. He said that Vijay Kishore was holding three posts and diverting all the funds collected from students as fee to the Chief Engineer’s account.

Assistant Registrar of the varsity K Mahipal Reddy said that the state government and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, the mother varsity, has granted academic autonomy, but not financial autonomy to JNAFAU. He said that all the issues of the university are the result of absence of an Executive Committee (EC), which looks after all the decisions taken by the university authorities. He informed that each and every decision made by the university vice chancellor was against the norms and in connivance with the Architecture &Planning department principal. It was also informed that VC herself appointed Vijay Kishore as the NATA (National Aptitude Test in Architecture) Convenor who in turn conducted the test with a whopping cost of Rs 1 crore, the amount is ten times more compared to previous years.

Vice-Chancellor P Padmavathi simply refused to take questions on the University and its functioning. Neither was she forthcoming on the allegations made against her by the university staff. The staff members were insisting that the state government immediately take action against these academicians.

List of Financial Irregularities
- Fees collected from the students is more than prescribed
- Funds meant for the development are being transferred to chief engineer’s account
- Decisions are not being taken as per the procedure
- Recruitment at contract basis made flouting norms
- Courses are being run without proper permission
- Absence of EC playing the spoilsport

Contract Employees Await Recommendations

Mohammed Younus/ hyderabad: Thouagh the time given for the special committee to study the regularization of 30,000 contract employees in the State ended last month, members of the committee have not made any recommendation to the Telangana government. The eight-member committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, met twice on the issue and said that they need more such meetings to suggest suitable measures to the state government on the crucial issue.

There are thousands of employees working for several years in various departments on contract basis. Apart from them, several outsourcing and time-scale employees are also big in number. After much hue and cry from the contract employees of different departments, the state government has constituted the committee to formulate a regularization scheme of these employees. The committee was given two months to suggest to the government on the issue. It was given a task of studying the method of appointment, categories of contract personnel, compliance with rule of reservation and all related issues. Higher Education Secretary Vikas Raj said that only two meetings have been conducted till date and it would be premature to come to any conclusion as the process may take considerable time. He said that the committee was studying the issue closely and more new things were needed to clear lot of doubts.

The state government has promised to regularize the contract employees at any cost after verifying the facts of recruitment process. The committee actually had to verify the terms of references during the whole process of scrutiny. According to an estimate, there are about 30,000 contract employees working in various government departments in Telangana. Most of the contract employees are in Panchayat Raj, Education and Medical departments. The number of contract employees working as Junior Lectures is around 4,000.

Educationists and experts on the other hand said that the promise of regularization may not see the implementation as there were some legal hurdles and Supreme Court directions. According to an educationist who wanted to be anonymous, Act 2 of 1994 hinders any kind of recruitment for the public sector and they should be done through a test conducted by a Public Service Commission. “There is no other route for such jobs. Secondly, the rule of reservation must be followed,” he said. On the other hand, recruitment on contract basis can be done only after specifying the period of recruitment.

Also, the State Service Rules state that only 10 per cent employees can get promotion and 90 per cent employees should be recruited through the Public Service Commission. Interestingly, several student organizations from the state are opposing the decision of state government to regularize the contract employees.

Pitching for Separate CET

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad: After announcing separate schedule for Intermediate public examinations in Telangana, the State government is now pitching for separate EAMCET (common entrance test for admissions into engineering and medicine courses) for the State. Sources in the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) revealed that a decision on this issue would be taken in a day or two after holding discussions with Education Minister G Jagadishwar Reddy.

Telangana government’s argument for separate EAMCET is that if it is conducted in common, most of the top ranks would be taken away by the AP students as they have better educational infrastructure and good number of EAMCET coaching institutions. Moreover, the Telangana students are not competitive as AP students due to lack of best faculty, educational infrastructure and due to their rural back ground. In this case, the morale of the TS students would be dampened further besides not getting the ranks, the TS educationists argued.

The TS Education Minister and educationists have been advocating for the separate EAMCET or at least separate ranking so that the competition would be confined to TS only. In fact the state government was contemplating on conducting separate test ever since the state was divided. TSCHE chairman T Papi Reddy said that a decision on this issue would be announced after discussing the modalities with education minister along with experts. He said that their decision to conduct separate test was justified on many grounds. While the talks between AP and TS education ministers are inconclusive, both the governments announced their time table schedule for intermediate public examination a day ago.

However, AP is insisting on a common test as it was included in the 10th schedule of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2013. After several meetings at secretary level both the state governments announced their own time table for conducting the intermediate public examinations. Educationist P Madhusudan Reddy said that according to the Section 94 of the AP Reorganization Act, the common admission system should remain same in which students from AP could also get admission into TS institutions under 15 per cent non-local quota. If the TS government decides to conduct the EAMCET separately, it would not harm the spirit of the reorganization act. In case of students from AP wanted to take admission in the institutions of TS they have to appear for TS’s EAMCET apart from their own test.

Educating Illegally !

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Dozens of private schools, which were closed down for not having necessary documents fulfilling the criteria, are still functioning in the city limits with the blessings of corrupt officials. Officials responsible for scrutinizing the validity of private schools in the city are not taking it seriously and are refusing to take action against the erring school managements that are still cheating parents and students despite not having valid documentation. 

Thousands of students in the city are forced to continue their studies in such schools which may or may not continue in the next academic year, as their recognition is not temporary. These private schools were closed down by District Collector Mukesh Kumar Meena for functioning illegally in July. The managements of these schools were later given three months grace period to show relevant documents and imposed heavy penalty on them. Moreover, these school managements are not implementing the RTE Act recommendations for a long time. 

After serving notices and closing down several schools in city limits, the Collector ordered these school managements to procure all the required documents within three months or face de-recognition. Even after the completion of the deadline a month ago, these schools are still functioning without any document, as the DEO, Hyderabad, himself seems not keen to take action against these managements. Around 74 school managements were asked to show documents within three months. These schools were later given Permission to Open Schools and sanctioned Extension of Temporary Registration for three months. 

DEO Hyderabad M Somi Reddy said on Friday that the whole episode of closure and re-opening such schools had happened when he was not the in-charge of Hyderabad district. He said that now it is the middle of the academic year and they cannot de-recognize them due to various limitations. He said, “As the school managements could not afford to procure the required documents in three months, any authoritarian action against them would be taken up only in the next academic year.” 

It is to be noted that ETR is given for the period of 3 months to five years and every private school need to possess this for functioning. On the other hand PTO certificate is another document needed for every school. Despite the serious tone of the collector against the defaulting private school managements, the schools are still functioning risking the future of the students.

Shaky institutions
-Around 74 private schools were shut down by the district 
Collector for defaulting in July 
-School managements asked for some time to show the required documents
-Collector granted 3 months grace period to the schools
-Deadline ended in the month of October
-Only few schools presented the necessary documents most of them did not care
-No action has been taken
-DEO denies any action citing that students are in the midst of an academic year
-These schools could be possibly closed by next academic year