Tirupati: Free textbooks elude government Junior college students

Tirupati: Even after the commencement of the academic year for Intermediate students on June 1, the availability of free textbooks still remains a big question mark. Last year also the government did not supply textbooks, saying that the syllabus needs to be changed in accordance with the NEP-2020. Despite the fact that Intermediate education occupies an important place in students’ career as it decides their future, the government seems to be not bothered.

Private colleges are somehow managing the situation as the books are available in private markets. Further, they prepare study material of their own and supply it to their students. But, the plight of the students of government junior colleges was horrible as they needed to get free books. However, undermining the fact, the government faculty were saying that last year they could manage with old books as there were some left over stocks. But, they have no answer when asked about this academic year.

The severe faculty crunch also became a major problem in government junior colleges as there was no recruitment for years together. The contract and guest faculty have been dominating in numbers the regular faculty. There are only around 1,400 regular faculty as against 3,500 plus contract and 1,200 guest faculty. In several colleges, particularly in rural areas, there are no regular faculty at all and more than 200 colleges are not having regular principals. With this, proper monitoring of the academic aspects in junior colleges was seriously hampered which is evident from the poor results.

The government junior colleges in the state registered only 36 pass percentage last year. The high school plus concept introduced by the government proved to be a disaster last year as no faculty was appointed there. The overall pass percentage in high school plus was 12 per cent while some colleges registered zero results. Though the government has been saying that it has improved the junior colleges with all infrastructure under Nadu-Nedu, it squarely ignored the very fact of fulfilling the faculty requirement which is the essential part in getting good results.

Speaking to The Hans India, the president of Government Junior College Lecturers Association V Ravi said that they have been asking the government repeatedly to supply textbooks and expecting them soon. He admitted that the shortage of regular faculty is a problem, but said that the government has renewed the service of the contract and guest lecturers for this academic year well in advance who can take care of the academic activities.