Inflation of a different sort in junior colleges in Telangana

Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (TGBIE) has asserted a significant increase in student admissions in government junior colleges this year. However, lecturers are expressing their suspicion that uncomfortably large numbers of these admissions are "bogus".

With the TGBIE, up to 94,155 students from 430 colleges in the state enrolled, a rise of more than 10,000 compared to last year's 83,844. Members of the Government Junior College Lecturers' Association, nevertheless, have sounded warning bells, alleging that close to 30,000 of these enrolments are a mere illusion. They maintain the inflated enrolment statistics are because of rumors of college shutdowns, contending there is pressure on colleges to inflate numbers.

This has resulted in student names being included on rolls without their actual presence. For example, the Government Junior College in Huzurabad, where 240 students are enrolled as per records, but only 160 students have produced their transfer certificates. In Kacheguda, among 524 admissions, 72 students are missing, having neither produced certificates nor ever attended the classroom.

Likewise, 42 of the 607 admissions in Government Junior College, Nalgonda, were suspected to be bogus; in the Government Junior College, Malkajgiri, out of 577, only 350 students were found to be attending classes. Lecturers TNIE spoke to, on condition of anonymity, estimated that the true enrolment across the state hovers around 60,000.

Amidst these allegations and counter-allegations, more than 100 colleges have shown enrollments of less than 100. This is being ascribed to poor infrastructure and the fact that the intermediate education system needs 12,000 more junior lecturers.

Madhusudhan Reddy, president of the Government Junior Colleges Lecturers' Association, provided some indication where the discrepancy in numbers could have arisen. "Fearing college closures, lecturers took student memos from neighboring schools and added names of students who might never enter a classroom.".

Some students register to get a certificate while studying elsewhere," he explained. "It is time for the TGBIE to wake up and take action. If the TGBIE can audit private colleges, why not the government ones?" he asked.

Admits 1,000, but a single student in class

A breakthrough by Shiva, a first-year student of Government Junior College, Suraram, seems to substantiate the statement of Madhusudhan Reddy. According to Shiva: "I was informed about 1,000 admissions, but when I joined college, I was the sole student in my class."

Efforts by TNIE to get a comment from TGBIE Secretary Krishna Aditya and top officials were ignored. Now the question remains: how many of such enrolments are genuine, and what does it portend for Telangana's future of education?