Junior colleges blatantly flout rules

Some deprive students of summer break by holding classes

Hyderabad: Making clear their utter disdain for rules, some corporate and private junior colleges have extended their academic calendar into the summer vacation, forcing students to abandon the holiday season. These junior colleges have commenced second year classwork just a couple of days into the Intermediate Public Examinations, for which the results are yet to be announced.

Alongside the Intermediate syllabus, students are being trained for competitive entrance tests such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibilitycum- Entrance Test (NEET). Despite the prevailing heat conditions in the State, classes are being run from morning till late evening. Worse is the case of students who reside in hostels and prepare for competitive entrance tests as their schedule commences as early as 5.30 am and extends late into the evening.

“We are given only one hour break — from 4.30 pm — and the rest of the time we have study hours, besides daily examinations,” said an Intermediate student preparing for NEET. This is in gross violation of the rules laid down by the board, which has announced summer vacation for junior colleges from March 31 to May 31 and directed college managements to strictly adhere to the vacation schedule. It has also warned colleges of severe action for any deviation. Despite this, colleges continue to flout the rules. “Some corporate junior colleges have commenced second-year classes violating the TS BIE rules.

We have complained to the Education Department Principal Secretary and BIE Secretary,” said Gouri Satish, president of the Telangana Private Junior Colleges Managements Association. Also, some corporate junior colleges have already completed admissions for first-year Intermediate! This was done at a time when neither the SSC results are announced nor the Intermediate Board had come up with an admission schedule for junior colleges. In fact, the colleges were warned by the board to adhere to the admission schedule, which also asked parents to admit their wards only into colleges that receive affiliation for the academic year 2024-25.