Hyderabad Metro Rail Mess

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : The management and students of Koti Women’s College, along with heritage lovers, are strongly opposing the changes proposed in the Metro Rail alignment as it would eventually disturb the campus atmosphere and deface a heritage structure on it. For, the modified track route would pass through the college campus intercepting it right on the middle of its ground and run towards Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS). 

Under the previous plan, the route was to pass through Sultan Bazar road. As local traders could successfully convince the State government to realign the Metro Rail so as to avoid Sultan Bazar road, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had asked the Metro Rail authorities to draw up an alternative route, they pointed out. Metro authorities proposed to cross the track from the Women’s College campus as it would help avoid any damage to property of traders in Sultan Bazar area. They proposed that the existing route could change its course from Badi Chowdi to Women’s College and move further intercepting college campus. 

Ever since this proposal came to light, the college management, students and some heritage lovers have started criticising the modified realignment plan. Women’s College principal B T Seetha sought to know how the government could ruin the place where students are being educated. Should the proposal be implemented, the only ground of the institution would vanish and the peaceful atmosphere on the campus would be disturbed forever, she reasoned. She decried that neither the State government nor the Metro Rail authorities bothered to consult the college authorities before drawing up the new route. 

Had they consulted us, we could have proposed any other alternative, she added. Yet another significant question pertains to the listed heritage structure on the campus – the Residency Building. Heritage conservationist P Anuradha Reddy said that, despite issues concerning Metro Rail realignment, there had been no public hearing and no public opinion was sought before going ahead with the project in Hyderabad. “The Metro Rail is now running in the city like a wild buffalo damaging one or the other heritage structure or public properties.” It was time for Metro Rail authorities to garner public opinion on each route it was designing rather than limit discussions to politicians who did not know much about heritage, she commented.

Before starting the project, the authorities concerned had done neither environmental assessment nor heritage sites assessment in the city. The people were the owners of city and their opinions ought to be taken. Students of the Women’s College have started protesting against the proposals as they would possibly turn their lush and vast campus ground into a highway with huge pillars carrying Metro tracks. M Snehalata, a B Sc student, said that she would not accept government’s nod to ruin her college campus. “Perhaps we would leave the campus in a year or two, but for the next generation students the college atmosphere would be completely destroyed, turning it into railway track.”

Hiring Trends in IT

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Android technologies, mobile apps and cloud computing are the latest domains global IT giants are vying to hire young IT graduates in and are looking for students with required level of know-how on these technologies. With Android establishing itself firmly across a majority of the mobile industry all over the world and cloud computing technology becoming the order of today’s IT industry, the demand for fresh minds with the skillset is ever increasing. 

Institutions with latest syllabi structures are much sought after by the IT companies. Corporate giants like Google, Walmart, Microsoft, Amazon, Linked In, Invidia, Samsung and Flipkart are hiring their workforce from the local student pool of Hyderabad. Placement Head of the International Institute of Information Technologies (IIIT) Hyderabad T V Deviprasad said many of its students are landing in famed global IT companies due to its Research & Development facilities and updated syllabi as per the industry needs. 

Explaining about the current round of hiring in the IIIT-H campus, he said, “Around 120 companies have registered for recruiting the students. Out of the 365 registered students, 110 have already been hired by multiple companies.” The packages given to the first time employees are so lucrative that some of the students were offered as high as Rs 1 crore per annum. Xenovus Software limited vice President and General Manager T V P Kameshwar Rao said that the companies look for students who are flexible and innovative in their approach towards problem solving.

He said, “Students who take less time to be trained are preferred more and gain prominence and salary hikes in a shorter period of time.” Kameshwar Rao said that IT companies across the globe were looking for institutions with state of the art teaching methods and subject content. He opined that if all the engineering colleges expose their students to the real time industry conditions during their period of study, it would be helpful in tapping the vast opportunities available.

No discrimination in Universities

Hyderabad: University Grants Commission (UGC) made it clear to all the universities in the country that they should not bar any foreign academician on the grounds of race or colour. The circular issued by the apex educational grants body reached the universities of the State. UGC was prompted to issue the circular in the wake of controversy surrounding Bharatiar University of Tamil Nadu a few months ago. 

University officials barred African academicians from being a part of doctorial committee in the university. The fiat stated that African professors should not be appointed as examiners for PhD scholars. This circular was criticised by educationists and professors from across the nation. The Doctorial Committee (DC) comprises a guide, internal DC member, and external DC member. External committee members also examine the theses and research reports of students. But after the Bharatiar University’s racial episode, Indian Universities drew flak from across the globe and have been accused of racial discrimination. 

After taking note of the entire episode, the UGC asked all universities and institutes across the country to delete all such clauses from their regulations that suggest racial or other discrimination. Bharathiar university regulations had a clause avoiding examiners from African countries from examining theses. According to UGC, this kind of clause is against the country's foreign policy. The university said, “For all PhD theses (except Tamil), the panel of examiners should consist of four foreign examiners, preferably from the scientifically advanced countries, avoiding African countries (exception South Africa).”

A research scholar in economics Shaik Wasiullah from B S Abdur Rahman University said that having one external examiner is mandatory as per rules and sometimes they were called from universities of other states or other countries. He said that stopping examiners from African countries was definitely a case of racial discrimination.

Now separate Entrances..

Mohammed Younus/ Hyderabad: After strongly advocating for separate intermediate examination and constituting the separate Board of Intermediate, the Telangana government is moving ahead to hold Common Entrance Tests(CET) including EAMCET on its own. The State government is of the opinion that the CETs should be conducted separately for both the States as per the provision in the 10th schedule of the AP Reorganization Act 2014. The CETs that could be conducted separately are ICET, PGECET, LAWCET, EDCET, ECET, PECET and EAMCET as well. 

Different universities from across the undivided AP have been conducting different CETs for a long time. Some universities are located in Telangana and few are in AP, facilitating the common admissions of the students with 15 open quota for the non-local or general category students. Earlier, the government has envisaged the separate EAMCET and the modalities were under discussion. Now other common examinations have been included in the separation list.

TSCHE vice chairman S Mallesh said that a meeting of council members and other subject experts across the State on the issue was due to be held in next week. He said that the meeting would prepare the modalities for these CETs in the light of Reorganization Act. He said, “Provisions in the 10th schedule allow the TS government for conducting the CETs separately and it would never harm the spirit of the act.”
As far as the common admissions are concerned, the TS universities would surely allocate 15 per cent quota for the general category students, as mentioned in the section 95 of the 10th schedule. 

However the students of AP need to appear in the tests conducted by TS government if they wanted to take admission in the State. On the other hand, the weightage issue in the EAMCET ranking would be resolved by taking into consideration the marks given by the respective examination boards. State council was planning to implement the Percentile system to decide the ranking of EAMCET to avoid confusion among the students.

ICET has been conducted by Kakatiya University (KU), PGECET by Osmania University (OU), LawCET by Sri Venkateshwara University (SVU), EDCET by Andhra University (AU), ECET by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada (JNTUK) and PECET by the Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) in the past. If the State government has its way, it would divide these entrance examinations among other universities of Telangana lessening the burden of OU and KU. Now the Palamuru University, Telangana University, Mahatma Gandhi University and Shatavahana University would take the burden of other CETs.

Entrances under consideration are:
- ICET - Held for admissions into MBA, MCA programs
- ECET- Held for admissions into engineering courses
- PGECET- for admissions into PG engineering courses
- PECET- for admissions into physical health courses
- EDCET- for admissions into teacher education courses
- EAMCET- for medicine, agriculture and engineering
- Law CET-for admission into Law courses

Inefficient Teachers

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Most of the private schools in the State are functioning with inefficient teachers and about 70 per cent of them cannot answer the questions from the syllabus, they teach. These teachers were neither properly educated nor suitably trained, a government survey revealed. The survey was conducted with the help of officials from the State institutions like SCERT, DIET and School Education department. 

Teaching in Tumbling

• -Only 30 per cent are trained
• -About 80 per cent teachers don’t have syllabus/lesson plan
• -Only 30 per cent can actually understand the subjects they teach
• -Almost 90 per cent teachers needed to be trained about the syllabus and new pattern

The revelations of the survey would possibly change the mindset of parents whose children are studying in private schools. Surprisingly only 15 per cent teachers working in the private schools were found to be trained though 70 per cent among them were being graduates or post graduates. It was also revealed that several schools recruited Engineering graduates for teaching Mathematics, who don’t have any teaching experience and don’t know how to be with children.

The survey was conducted across the State to assess the efficiency of education, learning levels of students and infrastructure in private schools and the report was submitted to the State government for further action. It was revealed that around 70 per cent teachers do not have any idea about what was in the syllabus they were teaching to the students and only 30 per cent teachers could answer the questions based on the syllabus. The survey was conducted in ten districts in 442 private schools including 367 English medium, 73 Telugu medium and 2 Urdu medium. 

During the survey 10,291 teachers were questioned basing on syllabus, subject and RTE. It was found that out of around 10,000 only 3,384 were qualified in Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) and other teacher training courses. About 80 per cent of the teachers don’t read the syllabus books and found teaching without any lesson plan and syllabus plan to the students. It was revealed that only 24 per cent private schools were imparting education through the syllabus prescribed by the State government.

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Arts College Turns 75

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : The architectural marvel represented by the Osmania University Arts College building -- designed by Belgian architect Monsieur Jasper – is still standing tall completing 75 years of glory. Considered the ‘Fort of Knowledge’ by many admirers, the Arts College started functioning on December 4, 1939, after the completion of its construction, which took nearly five years. 

Considered the ‘Fort of Knowledge’ by many admirers, the Arts College started functioning on Dec 4, 1939, after the completion of its construction, which took nearly five years. 

Archaeologist B Chenna Reddy says the Arts College is undoubtedly the symbol and face of Osmania University. He says, “While OU has been imparting education in various streams for a very long time the Arts College has been giving lessons of beauty of mind and integrity through its integrated structure.” The building was constructed by the seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan with an intention to provide higher education to students at par with global standards. It is one of the major heritage structures in Hyderabad. 

A team of experts travelled around the world to find the right design and the right person who could design this historic masterpiece. The building in pinkish granite stone represents a harmonious blend of pillars and lintel style of Ajanta and Ellora. It was earlier started with only few departments and several other departments were added over a period of time. Starting with the building of the Arts College, the university has received several honours and awards. It has won the Institution of Potential Excellence award, besides bagging the ‘A’ grade of the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) and several other research centres. 

The building is listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO and the diamond jubilee of the college building was celebrated in December 1999. Archaeology expert Abdul Qayyum says that the structure of the building itself imparts knowledge of integrity and unity to students, teachers, governments and all those who come to see it. He says that Arts College is the best symbol of unity among different communities and cultures. He adds, “The first floor of the building represents the Indian Architecture (Ellora like Pillars), the second floor represents the Islamic architecture and the entrance represents the Gothic architecture.” 

Qayyum further says that Mir Osman Ali Khan had built a fort like structure for the benefit of common people encompassing the shadows of all cultures of India. Youngsters shaped by the college over the years have turned out to be equally outstanding in their chosen spheres and the majestic building never fails to evoke nostalgia among the people who had passed through this portal of knowledge. Though the university has come a long way to reach this stage, several students are wary of the lack of research activity in the varsity. They also mourn the neglect for the subjects of Arts by university authorities.

Evading Inspection !

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Several engineering colleges, found with poor infrastructure by the task force, have closed their doors to the inspection of Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University officials, with a fear of losing opportunity of admitting the students. This created apprehensions among the students who were pursuing their academic activities in them as the managements closed the campuses. Students who are keen on using the second phase of admissions are also apprehensive of this move.

-Around 170 such colleges with poor infrastructure and academic amenities were not allowed to participate in the first phase of EAMCET counseling and these managements had to knock the doors of High Court and Supreme Court for getting permission to participate in counseling
-The fresh round of inspection commenced on November 26 and it is being carried out n the private engineering colleges, listed under ‘Poor Performers’ category 

The fresh round of inspection commenced on November 26 and it is being carried out in the private engineering colleges, listed under ‘Poor Performers’ category for not having proper infrastructure. According to the JNTUH officials, the inspections were being conducted as per the orders of Supreme Court and a report would be prepared very soon. The University officials informed that several colleges kept their campuses closed during the inspection period and inspection teams could not enter them. Academic audit cell officials from the University informed that after this inspection, a comprehensive report would be prepared and submitted to the Supreme Court.

Around 170 such colleges with poor infrastructure and academic amenities were not allowed to participate in the first phase of EAMCET counseling and these managements had to knock the doors High Court and Supreme Court for getting permission to participate in counseling. The first phase was already done by the time they got the permission and de listed colleges were deprived of admissions. Again the managements had to approach apex court for conducting second phase of counseling. Supreme Court in the past had asked the JNTUH to submit a report on the infrastructure of these colleges and compliance with AICTE norms and also advised the students to be careful while selecting them.

It also told to the students that their admission into such colleges would be provisional until the report of inspection is submitted to the apex court. On the other hand, the Telangana Engineering and Professional College Managements Association chairman N Gautham Rao said that managements were not feared about inspection. He said that students need not worry about their future in these colleges as there are hopes that JNTUH and AICTE would give some more time to resurrect their shortcomings. The inspection would go on for one more week and a report would be prepared.

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