HYDERABAD: While the spurt in the number of suicides among students has sent the government, parents and college managements into a tizzy, the pressure undoubtedly is more on the corporate and private colleges.It was suggested during the meeting between parents and college managements convened on Tuesday that the present marks system should be replaced by grading at the intermediate level, a system that is already in use at schools, UG and PG levels.
Just a day after patting government’s back for initiating the slew of preventive measures, college managements have realised that their implementation will not be a cakewalk, especially with lack of clarity from government. For instance, the process of replacing marks system with grades, a reform that colleges have been demanding for the past four years, is not clear, as intermediate II year students have memos based on marks and not grades.
“Introduction of grading would certainly be a welcome step but can be implemented only from next academic year. Another important aspect that BIE and government overlooked is that if they do away with marks, then they will also have to discard the practice of giving weightage to intermediate marks in EAMCET and NEET,” said Dr P. Madhusudhan Reddy, president, Telangana Inter JAC. BIE secretary Dr A Ashok said that colleges running unauthorised hostels would also face a crackdown. However, there was no mention to bringing them into the Board’s fold. “Clear guidelines need to be given with regards to the number of rooms and toilets and their occupancy,” Dr Reddy added. G Satish, honorary president of Telangana Private Junior Colleges Management Association said private colleges will not face any issues.
Stating that corporate colleges function on hype and promotion, he said that after collecting high fees, parents will expect them to train children for competitive exams and government will pressurise them to adhere to its directives. “At a time when children are giving half-yearly exams and pre-finals are being conducted in corporate colleges, how does the government expect them to follow the academic calender,” said TPJCMA president. Additionally, conducting classes between 9:30am to 4:30pm too seemed to have baffled some.