Education in Telangana in a sorry state

It’s a sorry state of affairs for higher education institutes in newly formed state of Telenagna. Being extremely fund-starved, most of the guidelines given by the University Grants Commission (UGC) are mere instructions on paper. Thanks to the financial crisis in higher education institutes, often the UGC's guidelines on academic and infrastructure development remain only on paper as far as the state universities are concerned. UGC's recent notice on safety of students on the campuses of institutes of higher learning also met the same fate with the universities finding them impractical to implement.

In April the UGC, in a letter to all universities, directed them to take several measures to improve the safety of students on their campuses. The steps include:

• Installation of CC TV cameras at hostels
• Mechanism for verification of the identity of visitors
• High-security system at the entrance and exit of campuses
• Construction of a boundary wall covering the hostel buildings
• UGC also wanted police stations set up on the campuses.

But none of the state universities have implemented any of these guidelines so far. Let alone an increase in the number of security personnel, the university hostel buildings do not even have CC TV cameras.

The universities have found that it is impossible for them to make such arrangements with the available funding. For eg., a senior professor at Osmania University said, "The UGC wants us to block the entry of outsiders. But at a university like OU, controlling outsiders is beyond our capacity. Without additional manpower and funding, such instructions cannot be implemented." 

Even as universities remain helpless in this regard, the UGC has come under fire for its guidelines. A group of students and faculty members have recently launched an online campaign against UGC's recommendations for setting up police stations on campuses. Stating that police presence on campus will be an intrusion into the privacy of students; nearly 1,000 students signed an online petition that demanded UGC chairperson to withdraw these guidelines.

Source: New Indian Express