The English Department students of Meenakshi Government Arts College took out a rally on Monday, from their institute to the Collector’s office and submitted a petition to Collector Anshul Mishra asking him to intervene in an issue where their undergraduate course has not been recognized as eligible under the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB).
The issue that B.A. (Communicative English) course of the college which was introduced in the year 1997 as a vocational subject after changing the nomenclature of the conventional B.A. English course has left two students, Muthupriya (1997-2000) and Lakshmi (2006-09) batch in the lurch. Though they had cleared the examinations under direct recruitment for the post of Assistant Elementary Education Officer, they were not selected as it was found that both do not possess the prescribed degree.
When contacted, Nirmala Manoranjitham Principal (in charge) said that the acting principal has gone to Chennai to meet the Director of Collegiate Education regarding this issue.
The college authorities said that it was an administrative lapse as they had no problems till the issue became problematic resulting in the rejection of the two former students. A letter from the Under Secretary of UGC dated July,1997 to the College states that “on the recommendations of Standing Committee on Vocational Education (SCOVE) the vocational subject has been approved and a grant of Rs.2.5 lakh is sanctioned to Sri Meenakshi Government College for Women, Madurai”.
The then Director of Collegiate Education, K. Ramalingam in his letter dated 22.9.97 has said that the UGC has sanctioned the vocational course of Communicative English at Government Arts College for Men, Thanjavur, and Government Arts College for Women, Madurai.
However, the Government Order No.133 given under the School Education Equivalence Committee head, the 33 Equivalence Committee Meeting held on March 27, 2012 has recommended that the B.A. Courses of Special English and Commerce English of Madras University are not equivalent to B. A. English but has recommended that B.A. (English Computer Application) of Periyar University and B.A. (Functional English) of Avinashilingam Deemed University as equivalent.
Unfortunately, Communicative English has not found its place and the demand of the students is that since 1997 the college has seen many batches of students of Communicative English, so they are anxious that their degrees would become “invalid” if it does not find a place in the Government Order as equivalent.
Though the Madurai Kamaraj University Registrar has issued a letter (dated 25.7.2012) stating that it is equivalent to B.A. English, the students demanded that a Government Order should be issued to save their future.
