HYDERABAD: Months after deputy chief minister Kadiam Srihari, who also holds the education portfolio, directed junior colleges to establish counselling centres in a bid to curb the alarming spike in student suicides, nothing much has changed on the ground.
The list of 14 rules that cover a range of issues had given utmost priority to the recruitment of professional psychologists, which private and corporate colleges have conveniently tweaked to suit them. For instance, Sri Gayatri Educational Institutions which has over 40,000 students in its 70 junior colleges across the State does not believe in having counsellors who just hold a masters in Psychology.
“They are simply not good enough. We try to have counsellors with academic outreach. Hence, most of our counsellors are teaching faculty with vast experience. They have acquired skills to counsel students,” said PMRK Murthy, chairman of the group. Students and teachers claim this is a norm in all corporate junior colleges. A zoology lecturer, from Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Narayanguda, said that though summer vacations are ongoing, holidays are a luxury for them.Telangana Board of Intermediate Education has declared summer vacation from March 29 to May 31. In a week since, it has registered 50 complaints against colleges.