Hyderabad: With the state government deciding to withdraw aid given to private colleges, the fate of 67 colleges in Telangana state hangs in the balance.
The aid given to these colleges ranges from 20 to 50 per cent of their total budget and this helps colleges keep the fee structure low and affordable for a large section of the populace.
With the government planning to do away with the aid, private colleges will have to either increase the fees, or will have to close some departments. The majority of these colleges are in Hyderabad. Some of them are run by trusts which require the aid to update courses and introduce new teaching tools.
Aided colleges in Hyderabad like Badruka College, AV College, and Andhra Mahila Sabha College are popular for the good quality of education they provide.
The government carried out an exercise for one year and collected data of the courses that are offered. Those that were found not to be at par with the current standards have been notified, and the colleges have been asked to discontinue these courses. Those colleges which do not have sufficient number of students have been asked to improve their numbers if they want to be provided aid by the government.
A senior education officer said, “The exercise was carried out to check if there is accountability on the part of the college and whether the money is actually being used for education purpose only. For this reason, these colleges have been identified as not providing enough for the students yet taking benefits from the government.”
Commissioner of technical education, Navin Mittal, says the government provided aid for only one or two classes out of the 10 classes that are functioning.
“The policy across educational institutions is to ask the colleges and universities to look for avenues of self-finance,” he said. He added that aid to the colleges was reviewed after a period of 10 years and “it was found that in certain courses neither there are enough students nor faculty.
“For this reason, the colleges were told that they must not continue with these courses if there are insufficient teachers.
“We are aiding many colleges in the state but are checking on the strength of the students, the viability of the course and also the ability of the institute to provide a good number of teachers.
These aspects are important for the college to impart quality education to the students.”
An internal assessment by the education department showed that around `20 crore was saved from the teachers’ salaries of those colleges which were not economically sound.
Similar steps are proposed to be taken by the government but they will be carried out on a case to case basis stated the senior officers of the education department.
The Aided Colleges Temporary Staff Association states that the colleges are not recruiting the required staff and only the aid provided by the government is being used for the salaries of teachers. Hence recruitment and number of teachers is based only on amount of aid received.
MLC A. Narsi Reddy has objected to the government’s opting out of its obligation in order to save its resources. Mr Reddy said, “This attitude of the government will not help as there is a need for these aided colleges, which have played a major role in imparting quality education.”
