Andhra govt cancels few courses as seats lie vacant in degree colleges
ONGOLE: With many intermediate students in the erstwhile Prakasam district not willing to enrol into degree courses, a number of seats have been lying vacant in government degree colleges even as two admission counselling sessions are completed.In several colleges, history, economics, chemistry and special Telugu courses, which have less than 15 per cent admissions, are going to be cancelled from the next academic year.
On the other hand, several engineering aspirants have applied for admission into colleges in neighbouring districts and not in Prakasam. Officials of the education department said this was due to the delay in counselling process for admissions into degree courses as well as due to low pass percentage of intermediate students last year. It has been reported that B Com (computer science) is the only course where 100 per cent seats have been filled as compared to less than 65 per cent seats in other courses.
As per official information, of the 42,000 students who appeared for intermediate examinations this year, 66 per cent passed and another 23 per cent cleared the supplementary exams later.As a result, counselling for admission into degree courses was delayed and majority of the students who cleared their inter exam in the first attempt chose to opt for engineering courses at institutions in the neighbouring districts, while some students joined private degree colleges. Students from rural and financially weak backgrounds enrolled in government colleges.
In the combined district, there are 10 government and two aided degree colleges which offer courses in various combinations. Of the total 2,054 seats, 805 have been filled as of Dec.5. As per the norms of the higher education department, courses with less than 15 per cent admissions should be cancelled. As a result, courses in history, economics, chemistry and special Telugu at several colleges will be cancelled from the next academic year.