Andhra Pradesh: Academic tailspin

With society in the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh (Andhra and Rayal-aseema areas) in turmoil, since the July 30 resolution of the Congress party conceding the establishment of a separate Telangana state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh, education institutions and students have become the worst casualty.Right across the 2,75,000 sq. km state (pop. 84 million), students and teachers are out on the streets prot-esting for or against creation of the new state of Telangana comprising ten of Andhras 23 districts with a population of 35 million and the prized city of Hyderabad (pop. 7.75 million) — a hub of industry and education — having emerged as the bone of contention. Because of the volatile political atmosphere in the state, admissions into engineering, law, and business manage-ment institutions are yet to be comp-leted. More than 2.4 million students in classes X and Plus Two are likely to be badly affected as they will have to struggle to complete their syllabuses to write their board exams in March 2014. Under exam board rules, 220 teaching days are required to cover the syllabus — out of which more than 30 days have already been lost — to prepare students for the boards. Of the 66 counseling centres set up for admissions in over 700 professional colleges in the state, 34 are in the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions and the remaining in Telangana, and most of them are deserted.
We are facing difficulties because of lack of staff and widespread protests by students, but I am confident that they will come for counseling by September 15, says Prof. Jayaprakasha Rao, chairman of the State Council of Higher Education. Meanwhile with students in the forefront of the pro and anti-Telangana agitations forcing college shut downs, a large number of them are opting for colleges outside the state. According to some sources, almost 40,000 students from Andhra and Rayalaseema have applied for admission into engineering colleges in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, despite united AP boasting the largest number (847) of engineering colleges in India.
Likewise almost 50,000 Plus Two students from the Telangana region who because of constant political unrest had moved out of intermediate (Plus Two) colleges in the region to Vijayawada and Guntur in coastal Andhra, which boasts renowned intermediate colleges of the Narayana and Chaitanya groups with excellent test prep reputations, are reportedly planning to return to their home towns in Telangana as theres likely to be a reserved quota for them in reputed educational institutions in Hyderabad. This city, which is proposed as a joint capital for ten years of Telangana and Seemandhra, hosts IIT-H, Medak, NIT, Warangal, BITS, the Indian School of Business, University of Hyderabad, NALSAR Law University and the Centre for English and Foreign Languages University, both central universities.
The agitations have definitely adversely impacted the quality of education and saving the academic year has become our main concern. With institutions unable to complete syllabuses on time, theres likely to be liberal marking during evaluation with the result that companies will undervalue the scores of students during placements, warns N. Ramesh, president of the Consortium of Private Engineering Colleges of Andhra Pradesh.
With the joint action committee for Telangana threatening to intensify agitations to counter anti-Telangana protests and put pressure on the Central government to hasten the state formation process, theres no quick end in sight to the anguish of students and parents in Andhra Pradesh as teaching-learning and academic standards are in a tailspin.
Aruna Ravikumar (Hyderabad)