State colleges giving private entities a run for their money

There were about 2,500 private junior colleges and corporate colleges in the state in the year 2014, but only 1,684 have applied for affiliation, and only 972 have paid the fees for affiliation for the academic year 2018-19.

According to the Intermediate Joint Action Committee (JAC), the number of private junior colleges is declining because of the strict measures being implemented by the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) and because of the migration of students to residential colleges and government junior colleges.

According to the senior officials of the Intermediate Board, there was a significant increase in enrolments in government junior colleges in 2017-18. The Telangana government is implementing initiatives to ensure that government colleges do not lose out to private colleges in the state in terms of admissions.

Madhusudhan Reddy, the president of the Intermediate JAC, says, “Students studying in private colleges are slowly migrating to residential junior colleges. If they don’t get into residential colleges, they join government junior colleges, where education is free and textbooks are supplied to them free of cost. The state government has spent `260 crore on the development of government junior colleges in the last three years. Government junior colleges are now giving private junior colleges tough competition.”

He says that there are enough junior colleges in Telangana, the government should not sanction more colleges in the state. “Even private colleges should realiae that there are enough colleges in the state. They should not run their institutions just for fee reimbursements and their own profits. The state government is doing its best to promote government junior colleges, because of which the number of private colleges has come down in the last three years,” Mr Reddy says.

B. Jayaprada, the District Intermediate Education Officer (DIEO), says, “Affiliation to the Intermediate Board has had an impact on private colleges and corporate colleges in the state. Enrolments in Chaitanya Junior Colleges decreased by 20 per cent and by 30 per cent in Narayana Junior Colleges in 2017-18. This year they may be affected to an even greater extent.”

She says that the Intermediate Board is taking all the necessary measures to regularise the admission processes of corporate and private colleges, because of which enrolments have decreased.