Students' suicides: Telangana to register criminal cases against corporate colleges

Expressing anguish over the students committing suicides due to academic pressure, Srihari asked the educational institutions to ensure that a positive academic environment prevails.

HYDERABAD: Noticing the rise in the number of students’ suicides in corporate junior colleges across Telangana, the state government has decided to initiate strong action on management of such institutions.

Deputy chief minister K Srihari, who is holding education portfolio, announced that the state government would be taking steps to register criminal cases against the corporate junior colleges, where students are committing suicides due to pressure exerted by institutions for top ranks. 

“Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education has issued show-cause notices to 194 errant junior colleges, which are putting students under severe academic pressure for the sake of ranks,” Srihari told the State Legislative Council, while responding to a question.

He said the education department ordered all the corporate junior colleges to employ professional counsellors for students on a regular basis in order to ease academic pressure on the teenagers.  

Expressing severe displeasure over the way some corporate colleges are forcing students to attend classes even during holidays, the Deputy Chief Minister said as canceling the recognition of such colleges that are flouting standard norms while holding classes would create problems for the students in the middle of the academic year, the government would take stringent action on such colleges from next academic year (2018-19) onwards. 

“Affiliation to junior colleges would be given in March 2018 only if managements comply with the directions of State Board of Intermediate Education. The education department is drafting some guidelines for all corporate colleges in order to ease academic pressure on students,” he said.

When Congress members Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy and others alleged that the students’ suicides were occurring due to academic pressure in the corporate educational institutions, Srihari said the government would organise periodical meetings with the managements of corporate colleges and parents’ associations, here after in order to reduce the academic pressure on students.

According to the Deputy chief minister, recently, the intermediate board conducted surprise inspections on some corporate junior colleges in order to verify the facilities provided to students in such institutions. The board officials had found that some colleges were holding classes from 6 am to 10 pm continuously by exerting a lot of pressure on the students.

Expressing anguish over the students committing suicides due to academic pressure, Srihari asked the educational institutions to ensure that a positive academic environment prevails in the educational institutions. “Corportate educational institutions which do not follow the government's guidelines would be taken to task,” he warned. He further suggested that the corporate educational institutions should have counseling centres to help the students and their parents.

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