Hyderabad: Students demand waiver of fees to change stream

Hyderabad: For the first time, Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) is charging money for changing the medium of instruction and stream of courses after the final phase of admissions in Telangana Junior Colleges. 

If first year students wish to change the medium of instruction, they have to pay Rs 500 and for a change in stream, students have to pay Rs 700 and students from other Boards have to pay Rs 1,000 for an eligibility certificate.

Telangana State Private College Managements alleged that instead of paying scholarships and fee reimbursements to students, the Board is collecting money from the students. Junior college managements are demanding to waive off these fees and if the Board does not waive off the fees, they will protest at the TSBIE office.

According to the TSBIE official website, group change permissions are there only for regular candidates for first year, medium change permissions are there for first year regular candidates. First year students can change into any available group from any group. BPC Group change is not available and Arts to Science group change is also not available. For any change of medium in instruction and group change, government colleges need not pay but students in private colleges should pay these fees.

Gouri Satish, honorary president of Telangana Private Junior Colleges said: ‘’The State Government has kept pending crores of reimbursement fees to students and instead of releasing reimbursement funds to colleges and students who are suffering, Intermediate Board is now charging for group change and medium of instruction change which is an injustice to the students’’.

“It is difficult on part of the students and their parents to pay so much fees after paying for college fees and books. We demand to waive off this fees. Otherwise, we will conduct protests at the Board office soon. This type of fees has not been collected by the Board till date but we don’t know why for the first time, the Board has decided to collect money from the students for group change and medium of instruction.’’

Madhusudhan Reddy, president of Intermediate Joint Action Committee (JAC) said: “Students should not be burdened with different kind of fees and penalty. For eligibility certificate, generally, students and parents are paying since long but the Boards have never charged for group change or medium of instruction. Students are already paying Rs 100 as recognition fees and a student also pays many other fees but the Board should not burden the students with so many types of fees’’.

“The Board should facilitate the students instead of burdening them with huge fees and the Board should be rational with the students. We strongly condemn this act by the Board and demand to withdraw these fees immediately,” he said.