Students up the Ante

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : Educationists, student unions and parents of EAMCET qualified students are annoyed with the decision of Telangana government to delay the counselling for admission into engineering and medical courses. They condemned the government’s decision to delay counselling, as it may cause exodus of students from the State. Progressive Democratic Student Union state president J L Gowtham Prasad said that there was sufficient staff to conduct EAMCET counselling in the State. 

He said that the government was trying to detach itself from the fee reimbursement scheme. Because of the delay in decision over nativity, the whole process had been stopped, he revealed. Student Federation of India state president Shobhan Mood said that with this decision, students were contemplating to go to other states for their studies, where there was a strict academic schedule. “Such actions are driving students to the private and deemed universities, which will see them paying more for their studies,” he rued. Educationists urged the government not to postpone the counselling as it would waste the precious time of the students. 

Assistant professor S Kiran Kumar said that the qualified students of EAMCET were expecting the academic year to start early this time, but with the government’s announcement, they were under severe mental pressure. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) state president Jamalpur Niranjan alleged that State government wanted to get rid of the fee reimbursement scheme by showing irrelevant reasons for the proposed delay. He said, “If government is really committed to help the student community, it can easily conduct the counseling and give fee reimbursement to the poor and eligible student, but it is not sincere enough on this issue.”

He said that ABVP would organise a statewide agitation on Friday and observe educational institutions bandh on July 15. He alleged that state government had hatched a plan to escape fee reimbursement by delaying the counseling. Blaming both AP and Telangana governments, he accused both of being insincere in their promises. According to Supreme Court guidelines, the academic year in the professional colleges should be started from August 1. Earlier, it was reported that EAMCET counseling would start by July 5 or 7, but with no concrete stance on fee reimbursement, the counseling has been put on hold for a longer period.

AP-Telangana Students lose out

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : Several students may lose their seats in IITs under the top 20 percentile rule which is higher for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as compared to other States. With cut-off marks being the highest across the country in both States, several students may have to lose seats despite securing the best ranks in JEE Advanced, as they do not fulfil the criteria decided by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). 

The marks secured in JEE Advanced in addition to the top 20 percentile ranking will be considered for admissions. If a student with a good rank in Advanced does not find his place in top 20 percentile in the Intermediate board examination marks will lose the seat.As the top 20 percentile for the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is 92 per cent, the highest among all the states, more students will be filtered out of the counseling process. The CBSE recently released the top 20 percentile for all states on the basis of list of marks sent by respective state boards for Intermediate education. 

Accordingly, the list of top 20 percentile for the students of AP and Telangana was decided considering both Intermediate first and second year marks. Out of 1,000 marks, the cut-off for general category is 92 per cent, for OBC 86 per cent, for SC students it is 81 and for ST 80 per cent. The cut off for Assam general students it is 58, for Bihar it is 60, for Chhattisgarh it is 65 and for Himachal Pradesh it is 72.37 per cent. With such a disparity among the cut off marks, the percentile would vary from State to State.

The top 20 percentile of AP and Telangana will be high compared to other States and a student from Assam can get into the IIT, though he or she may have less marks and may have got a lower rank. A student from Mahabubnagar M Rama Krishna, who secured 1,500 rank in JEE Advance, said that his dream may be shattered because of the top 20 percentile rule. He said that this system had made JEE Advanced ranks useless. An educationist and an IIT trainer Kasu Pavan Kumar said that deciding the cut-off marks on the basis of respective boards of state was creating the issue of top 20 percentile. He said that for CBSE students, the cut off was 83.2. If the same is applied to all the boards, it may have benefited everyone, he opined.
JEE Ranks
The Central Board of Secondary Education will release all India ranking for JEE (Mains) on July 7. About 12.5 lakh engineering aspirants are waiting for their all India ranking. The ranks, which were supposed to be declared by June 30, were delayed as the boards did not furnish Class XII results. The JEE (main) ranks will be used by central institutes (NITs and IIITs) and other prestigious ones across the country.

Private Schools

Private schools protest

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : Private school managements are crying foul over the sealing and locking of ‘unrecognised’ school premises by education authorities. Around 100 schools out of the 118 listed as unrecognised were sealed by the district educational officer (DEO) and other officials. The managements alleged that the schools remained unrecognised because of large scale corruption in various government departments from where certificates regarding fire safety, sanitation and traffic needed to be obtained.

The managements complained that many schools were still running without being caught even after collector’s orders. They alleged that in the name of action against unrecognised schools, several recognised schools had also been sealed. Abdul Rahman Siddiqui of Samsam Memorial School in Bandlaguda mandal said that the high school was registered with validity up to 2018, but the play school in the premises was not. He alleged that officials from Bahadurpura regional office deliberately included his school’s name and sealed it.

He claimed that every person in the office of DEO and Regional Joint Director asked for bribes to move files. He said, “Bribe is fixed for various certificates. For fire safety, Rs 50,000 is asked, for sanitation Rs 8,000 and for a traffic certificate Rs 25,000 and these rates may be hiked depending upon the officers.” He said that the academic future of hundreds of students would be jeopardised because of the sealing.

Private schools say even government schools not following rules

Dinesh Jaiswal of Rosey School in Begum Bazar said that several schools which were flouting norms and were still running. He said that officials were cracking the whip only on small schools and that bigwigs in the sector were spared. Many representatives of sealed schools were seen running from pillar to post to put their case in front of the Collector and DEO. The school managements were told to apply for the reopening of the schools by paying all the necessary fees.

A representative of Sri Krishnaveni School in Jiaguda, R Ramesh said that he had applied for the permission last year, but was unable to bear the bribery charges officials were collecting apart from the actual amount. He said that he implements RTE act in his school and provides education to the poor.

Private school managements said that though the government had set up strict rules for opening a school, they were not even followed by any government school. Suhail Safi Ismael of Moses School said that if authorities showed even a single example of ideal school, then he would definitely toe the same lines. He said that private schools were far better than government schools when it came to facilities, infrastructure and education as well.

Ramzan

Chandi ka Waraq

Chandi ka waraq sales gaining momentum

Metro News/ Hyderabad : The sound of uneven hammering in some shops near Charminar attracts several visitors but no one can understand what really is going on until they ask the shop keeper. These sounds in these shops of Chandi Ka Waraq (Silver Paper) would gain more speed in Ramzan month. With the beginning of Ramzan the workers in these shops seem to be busy. An old Kaarigar (worker of making this silver paper) Mohammed Akbar said that they get the material (Silver Bricks) from Delhi and make slices of it and then cut it into 2 cm pieces and would put it in a specially made German paper.

The tools that are used include a hammer, a wrapper and a finely cut stone

After properly wrapping these pieces, workers start beating and that’s how a silver paper of a size of Pass Port is made. Akbar said, “Kaarigar need to beat for three hours to make one pack of papers consisting around 250 pieces.” These are sold at the rate of Rs 3 per piece and people buy it according to their need. The tools that are used include a hammer, a wrapper and a finely cut stone. Some buy it for Daawat, some buy for sweets but most of customers for them are sweet shop owners, said Akbar. He said that due to some misleading reports on these silver papers, their sales came down and people are now using machine made papers.

Ali Bin Abdul Khader, owner of a Charminar Waraq Shop, adjacent to Mecca Masjid said, “Though season for us is Deepavali, we do good business in the month of Ramzan. The sale of Waraq (Silver Paper) increases in Ramzan month.” He said that in Ramzan month it is used to cover high quality Khajoor (Dates) and vendors buy it. It is used for wrapping sweet paan and to cover several other sweet delicacies in Hyderabad for decades. Abdul Khader said, “Most of the people use it just to show the ‘silver lining’.” He said that his shop was running for last fifty years and it was their family business.

From Charminar to Shah Ali Banda there are around 7 such shops where workers can be seen beating on a booklet type wrapper to prepare a thin layer of silver. Several shops also make Gold Papers which are sold at the rate of Rs 90 per piece. Abdul Khader said that Hakeems (Unani Doctors) buy these papers for preparing several medicines. A bundle of 500 pieces is sold at Rs 320 and bundles of Rs 60 and Rs 150 are also available. A Paan Shop owner at Royal Sea Hotel near Income Tax towers Mohammed Jeelani said that he uses this thin layer of silver for special Paans and it attracts our customers.

Sultan Bazar Boys School

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : A city school which is nearly 150 years old and an alma mater to several eminent persons, including a renowned mathematician, a former president and a chief minister, as well as a host of judges of the high court, would normally acquire heritage status. Alas! The Sultan Bazar High School is not so lucky or well- connected. Hence, it is a picture of utter neglect today.

The Sultan Bazar High School has a glorious past. It was among the few schools that offered education in five media. Several illustrious sons of the soil had their early education in the school, including former president Zakir Hussain, former AP Chief Minister T Anjaiah, children of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, mathematician Babaiah Naidu, present DGP of Karnataka Lalrokhuma Pachau and several judges of the AP High Court. Yet, the institution has been ignored over the years so much so that it is now on the verge of collapse. 

Well-meaning sections have been highlighting the need to renovate the school and sustain it for the present and coming generations. SU Sivaramprasad, currently in charge of the school, points out that in the past education was imparted in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Urdu and English media for children belonging to differing cultural backgrounds. 
Once considered as the best school in the city, the Sultan Bazar High School is now in shambles as successive governments have not cared for it, he bemoans. Much of the land belonging to the school has been encroached, with the institution’s sprawling premises being reduced to a few yards.

the government should bring back the glory of this school and restore the old structure

Established in the year 1866, before the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the school has a unique history. It was the first school in Hyderabad to offer education in five different media with contributions from the local communities and the then Asaf Jahi government. It was established under the supervision of the Nizam Education Trust for educating the children of people belonging to various communities settled in Hyderabad, especially those who had come from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Iran and Turkey. A clock tower was arranged on the campus for facilitating punctuality among students. Even that is in a state of neglect now.

Once abuzz with a large number of students, the strength of school has now dwindled to 106. The school has competent faculty, but the lack of proper infrastructure is deterring even students from poor families to get enrolled in the school. According to staff members, all government-run schemes are being implemented here, though no one is concerned about the building. As it is considered Grade 1 (oldest ones) school, no permanent headmaster is appointed. School staff members say that the results of SSC for past three years, at over 60%, have been encouraging. Referring to the present government’s promise to strengthen government-run schools, Sivaramprasad says that the government should bring back the glory of this school and restore the old structure.

Bone of Contention IIT Bombay

TOP RANKERS EYE BOMBAY IIT

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad : A majority of the top rankers of IIT JEE 2014 expressed their wish to join the IIT Bombay campus and choose the Computer Science stream. All-India second ranker and topper from Telangana state Sai Chetan said that he would be opting for Computer Science at IIT Bombay. He said that he was interested in research. Ravuru Lohit, who secured fourth rank, also said that he would also choose computer science stream in IIT Bombay.

His father R Suresh, a former Air Force employee, said that as there were good opportunities in the corporate sector. Ninth ranker N Pavan Kumar also echoed the thoughts of the aforementioned duo and said that he too would choose IIT Bombay. Another student Rakesh Naik, who secured the second rank in ST category, said that he was also interested in computer science and stated that Bombay as his preferred destination. The son of a farmer from Puttaparthi mandal of Anantapur, he however expressed his desire to become an IAS officer in the future.

On the other hand, Potluri Vachandeep, who secured 129th rank, said that he was very much interested in Mechanical Engineering and would like to join this stream at the IIT Bombay campus. When the students were asked about their future plans with respect to serving the nation, almost all the students said that did not have any idea. However, most of the students said that they would plan for their future so that their talent would be useful for the development of the country.

There are 16 IITs in the country among which Bombay, Roorkee, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras campuses are the most sought after. IIT Bombay is the preferred destination for Computer Science stream.