Intermediate Board seeks govt’s nod

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) is waiting for the State government’s approval before granting permissions to the private corporate junior colleges to have hostels.

According to the BIE officials, several corporate private junior colleges in the State have hostels attached to their colleges. These hostels, however, are not being regulated by any authority, leave alone the Board.

This has led to several colleges collecting huge fees from the students in the name of providing residential education for the intermediate courses. It has been found that the colleges have been collecting huge sums of money in the name of providing long-term, short-term and intensive coaching for medical, engineering and IIT entrance examinations.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior BIE official said, “The colleges are violating the norms prescribed by the Board in maintaining the hostels. In addition, the hostels attached to the colleges are not provided even with basic facilities,” he added.

All these facts had surfaced following the inspections conducted by the Board officials following a series of complaints received from the students and parents. During the inspections, it was found that the students were subjected to extended hours of study ranging from 10 to 15 hours in a day. They were also forced to stay in the hostel rooms with poor amenities.

The Board Secretary A Ashok said about 10 to 15 students were crammed into a single room with poor ventilation and amenities. Complaints were also received that students were provided with poor quality food. Adding to this, the colleges refused to allow parents and guardians to meet their children. All this has been mounting stress on the students. In some cases, students had gone to the extent of taking extreme steps like committing suicides.

It was against this background that it was decided to bring the hostels attached to the private corporate junior colleges under the preview and regulation of the Board.

As part of this, the Board had sent a report to the government making several recommendations. They include specifications about the area of the room, number of inmates to be allocated in each room, provisions for proper ventilation, drinking water and sanitation facilities, fire safety and the like.