Tirupati : Govt Jr colleges record dismal pass percentage

Tirupati : The dismal pass percentage recorded by government junior colleges in the erstwhile Chittoor district in the Intermediate examination results raised many eyebrows over the prevailing educational standards in these colleges. It was learnt that the principals and lecturers in these colleges will be issued memos by the Intermediate board asking them the reasons for the poor show. The government junior colleges have recorded only 18.41 pass percentage in the 1st year while in the 2nd year it stands at 35.38 percent. The private/corporate colleges have comparatively fared well with 57.65 pass percentage in 1st year and 62.56 percentage in the 2nd year. The two AP Residential colleges in the district have performed well as they showed 60.81 pass percentage in the 1st year and 79.07 percentage in the 2nd year.

Even the AP social welfare residential colleges have fared well compared to the government junior colleges as they recorded 60.23 and 67.75 pass percentages in the 1st year and 2nd year respectively whereas in aided colleges the percentages stand at 36.48 and 39.68 in the two year results.

Though junior lecturers have been showing various reasons for the poor performance, their main argument has focussed on the Covid-19 pandemic. A senior lecturer opined that the students have neither seriousness nor experience in facing public examinations as they were promoted without exams during the last two years. He recalled the students saying, "There is nothing to worry as the fourth wave will come and examinations will be washed out. No need for any hard work.''

However, the veracity of this argument has to be seen in comparison with private/corporate junior colleges. A private college faculty said that though Covid-19 was one of the reasons, there may be some other reasons as well. Even the private colleges should have fared even better than this, he felt. The complacency of the government faculty might be the major reason for the poor show of their students, he opined. The state president of Government Junior Lecturers Association V Ravi told The Hans India that the Covid has disturbed the academic schedule. Even after the late reopening of colleges, the hostels were not opened and the students have not come. Undoubtedly, the students missed the continuity in their education as the junior college students have missed class IX and X due to the pandemic.

Another major reason was that the faculty crunch has crippled the government junior colleges. Colleges having regular and contract faculty are comparatively better placed than those that rely more on the guest faculty. The delay in appointing the guest faculty has been seriously affecting the academic work, he explained.