With the government pulling out aid and allowing the aided degree colleges to entirely convert into private institutions, (and aided courses into self-financing ones) the fate of 67 colleges hangs in balance.
These colleges, offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses, are spread across the State with a majority of them in Hyderabad. The funds from aided colleges are to be transferred to their government counterparts.
While the commissioner of technical education, Navin Mittal, has justified this decision as rooted in the interests of government colleges, educationists and teachers of the aided colleges allege that refusal of the government to provide financial aid, coupled with a lack of faculty, will result in the closure of these institutions.
“We found that 58 of the 67 colleges were on private lands and only eight on government land. This proves that stopping aid was a good step and helped save the government’s money. Just last year we saved Rs 20 crore from payment towards teachers salaries of those working in uneconomic colleges,” Mittal said.
The commissioner, however, refuted claims that by blocking aid or asking the colleges to function on their own, they were promoting privatisation. “Only one of 10 sections in these colleges was aided. So essentially these colleges were already private. Also, it made no sense to pay for five teachers in an Oriental college which just had five students.”
Teachers and experts, however, have alleged that the discrepancy in the teacher-student ratio has been caused by the GO No 35 which prohibits the recruitment of teachers in aided colleges. The posts were left vacant when the existing teachers retired, and now most have just one or two aided staff.
Aided colleges in Hyderabad like Badruka college, AV College, Andhra Mahila Sabha college, have been popular for quality education.
There has been a demand that instead of letting these institutions die, the government should take them over.
“These institutions are run by trusts and have received land and crores of rupees from the government...these institutions should be turned into government colleges. The government will end up saving its resources, it is anyway is not starting new government colleges and existing ones are deplorable,” said MLC A Narsi Reddy.
Meanwhile, the Aided Colleges Temporary Staff Association (ACTSA) has stepped up their demand to scrap the GO No. 35.
