HYDERABAD: With the number of student suicides rising, the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) has issued a set of 16 guidelines to be followed by junior colleges to reduce all kinds of stress on students and ensure their mental and physical well-being.
According to the guidelines issued by Navin Mittal, Commissioner of Collegiate and Technical Education, extra classes should not exceed three hours per day and the college management should ensure that students living in the premises get at least eight hours of sleep. The students should also get at least one-and-a-half hours in the morning for breakfast and getting ready, an hour in the evening to relax and 45 minutes for lunch and dinner.
Sports and recreational activities should be conducted by the college, the guidelines add. Every student in junior college should undergo a medical checkup twice a year, they say.
All junior colleges should form anti-ragging committees, as well as appointing a senior faculty as student counsellor, the guidelines say.
Also, Intermediate classes will be allowed only in TSBIE-affiliated colleges and every junior college should follow the academic calendar issued by the TSBIE.
Colleges can’t remove staff till end of year
The TSBIE has made minimum 75% attendance mandatory for students. Junior colleges should return the fees paid within seven days if a student withdraws due to inability to cope or ill health or any other reason. The colleges can deduct a 25% fee for the first three months, 50% for the next three months and 75% after that. Several guidelines concern the teaching staff, including maintaining qualified and sufficient staff, Aadhaar-based biometric attendance and teaching diaries for teachers.
Junior colleges should not remove any staff till the end of the year without proper notice and replacement, according to the guidelines. In case the principal is changed, the colleges should inform the District Intermediate Education Officer (DIEO). “All the DIEOs are instructed to strictly comply with the above guidelines,” says the order issued by Navin Mittal on April 26.