BENGALURU: Classes for pre-university courses will start weeks earlier than usual in the upcoming academic year. Normally, the academic year starts during first week of June, but this time, PUC II classes will begin from May 2 while PUC I schedule will begin from May 14.
The department says this is being done to prepare students in advance and is in line with private colleges. Another reason cited is that the final exams concluded early due to assembly elections. “In view of the assembly elections this year, PUC exams were held early. The PU I exams concluded by February 21 and the students will get 69 days vacation,” explained C Shikha, director, PUE department.
For students from other boards planning to join PU courses, like every year, there will be an extended admission round as the results will be announced later. The PUE department says their data shows that only 10% of students from other boards migrate to state board and that there are enough seats. “There will be an extended round of admission for students from other boards and those who clear the SSLC supplementary exams. They need not worry about losing out on admission,” said Shika.
The department has planned a bridge course for students enrolling for PU I to acquaint them with college education. “As we have advanced the academic calendar, we are hoping for more enrolment in government colleges this year.
All these years, due to delay in starting classes, students would opt for private colleges,” said a senior official of the department. The department plans to provide practice materials and question banks for government college students to help them do well in the final exams.
However, this move has not gone down well with teachers. They claim that after evaluation work, they will be getting fewer days of vacation this time. “The evaluation work is still going on and even if it’s completed by April 15, we will get only about 15 days of vacation. The department should understand we have personal lives too,” they said.
PUE department director Shikha said, “There is no question of students or lecturers getting shorter holiday. Students will get a 69-day break whereas and for lecturers, there was break from March 18. The days they do evaluation work, the department is paying them an honorarium and it considered as work during vacation.”
New Schedule
■ Details of roster, seats, admission fee should be published on website and notice board on the day SSLC results are announced
■ Applications for PU I admissions to be issued for 5 days after announcement of SSLC results
■ Filled applications to be submitted within two days after last day of issuing applications
■ If colleges violate the admission calendar, they will lose affiliation