VIJAYAWADA: With an aim to reduce dropout of students after class X, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to establish a junior college on the premises of CVR High School in the city.
A proposal in this regard, placed before the council by education committee chairman Nazir Hussain, has got approval recently. Classes will be commenced for the first year intermediate courses at the college form the coming academic year.
Municipal Minister P Narayana had mooted the initiative to establish junior colleges in major municipal corporations such as Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Nellore and Tirupati. A year ago, the Nellore Municipal Corporation (NMC) established a junior college in Nellore and students from the college excelled in the recent intermediate board exams.
Buoyed by the response, the minister instructed the concerned municipal commissioners to replicate the same in their cities from this academic year.
According to the information available with VMC education department officials, the civic body has been administering 105 schools, which include primary, upper primary and high schools in the city and the students are faring well in the SSC examinations. As many as 18,746 students from the city have appeared for the class X examinations during the 2016-17 academic year. Out of the total, 2,000 students were from the schools administered by the civic body.
Around 10 per cent of the students passed out from the civic body schools have failed to join intermediate courses due to financial problems. On several occasions, parents have appealed to the civic body to establish a junior college for the benefit of the students from poor and middle class families.
"We provide quality education to the children up to class X. With the launching of junior colleges, students in the city can study for free till class XII," VMC deputy educational officer K Durga Prasad told TNIE.
Students from civic body schools who secured good marks in the class X examinations will be given preference in admissions to the new colleges in all three streams -- science, commerce and arts.
The junior colleges will also provide training for students for the competitive exams. Around 40 students will be given admission for the first year intermediate course beginning from this academic year. Instructions were given to develop basic infrastructure and amenities at CVR High School, he added.