Is Andhra Pradesh in for education boom or bust?

Updated on: Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Andhra Pradesh is turning into a state of surplus, well as far as seats in educational institutions are concerned. After the boom of engineering colleges , it's the turn of private junior colleges to outdo the demand with five times the supply . The number of Intermediate seats in the state will now shoot from 20.4 lakh to over twice the figure with the government all set to announce an additional 6,761 new private junior colleges in the state, to add to the existing 5,800 colleges. An average of 10 lakh students clear their SSC every year and 11 lakh seats in most colleges remain vacant after admissions into the first year. The new colleges will take the total number of seats to over 43 lakh.

The notification inviting college managements to set up these institutions will be issued on Thursday by Board of Intermediate Education (BIE). The file has been cleared by officials of the secondary education department and minister for secondary education, K Parthasarathi . As per BIE rules, the new colleges have to get a nominal approval from the board once they have constructed buildings with 8,000 square feet built-up area and a playground. Apart from this, the buildings need to have fire safety mechanisms in place along with laboratories. Interestingly , a total of 842 colleges are sanctioned just for lucrative urban areas in the city. A total of 5,919 colleges will come up in rural areas . Sources from BIE said the decision to set up this irrationally high number of colleges was taken with the approval of minister for secondary education, K Parthasarathi as part of the "education boom" that the state government seems to be interested in bringing about.

But educationists and senior lecturers from junior colleges said the move is meant just to support the marketing strategy of Intermediate colleges in the state. "The new notification means that state government is planning to give a free run for private college managements in the state. Most of these colleges attract students from across the state with advertisements that showcase their seat strength and "good results." The government's decision to increase the seat strength is unreasonable , unjustified, unfounded and unwarranted," said P Madusudan Reddy, general secretary,

Government Junior College Lectures Association. Reddy said that government junior colleges will be affected the most by the private college boom.

Few takers for government colleges

There are 820 government junior colleges and 170 aided junior colleges in the state which are currently reeling under poor student strength.

The setting up of new colleges will result in a massive exodus to private junior colleges , lecturers said.

Educationists said that the model of education boom followed by the state will only lead to dilution of the quality of education.

"About three years ago the state government wanted to start a university in each of the districts of AP.

"Although these varsities came into existence , they do not attract many students as they are not competent enough to offer good education.

"The state government should realise that they need to show their strength not in numbers but in quality," said P M Bhargava, former vice-chairman , National Knowledge Commission, who also opposed the state's move to increase the dependency on private educational institutions in the state.

Educationists said that the state government has made a big mistake by allowing an unprecedented and unjustified growth of intermediate colleges as the model had failed largely in the case of the engineering colleges.

While the state allowed an unchecked growth of engineering colleges in the city to 727 in 2011, about 40% of the seats remained vacant last year.

Predictably, private college managements supported the move stating that there are mandals in the state which have just one junior college.

"There are a lot of students who are forced to migrate to urban areas for their education and an increase in the number of colleges will only help these students," said a senior lecturer from Narayana Junior College .

Times of India

Is Andhra Pradesh in for education boom or bust?

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