Telangana mocks at convocations

Hyderabad: The Telangana government does not think graduating from a university is worth a celebration. For, convocation ceremonies are irregularly held in state universities, and in some cases not held at all.

Since the formation of Telangana, Osmania University has not conducted a convocation ceremony. The last one was in 2013, but without the presence of its then chancellor, Governor ESL Narasimhan. Before that, it was held in 2010.

The situation is worse in Palamuru University, Satavahana University, Telangana University and Mahatma Gandhi University, where convocation ceremony was conducted only once till now. This is in contrast with the scene in AP where convocation ceremonies are regularly held and on a grand scale.

Example of this is Andhra University where, last year, chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, S.V. Raghavan was the chief guest for its 82nd convocation, which was broadcasted live on the internet.

Says Dr EN Murthy of Satavahana University, “Importance for education was always low in Telangana compared with the Andhra Pradesh region due to historical reasons. Convocation ceremony is a regular affair in many AP universities. The present government has not taken any effort at changing the trend or even promoting education in Telangana.”

Prof Battu Satyanarayana, president of Osmania University teachers’ association says, “Over the years, successive governments have ignored OU and the TS government is no different. At least, convocations used to be held earlier which were joyous occasions and were attended by personalities like Dr Kasturirangan and Yasser Arafat.”

Among central universities in the state, the EFLU has not conducted even a single convocation ceremony since its establishment in 2006 as a central university.