It is normal for private institutes to ‘bend’ the rules to stay in the business, but some physical education colleges have made flouting norms their business.
Colleges that have adopted fraudulent means are in jitters after the CBI stepped in to investigate the cases of irregularities in the National Council for Teacher Education’s (NCTE) Bengaluru-based southern regional council, deputing teams to some colleges in Rayalaseema recently.
Apart from several education colleges, those imparting physical education training are also under the scanner.
Anomalies galore
Five colleges offer undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma courses in physical education in Chittoor district alone. The ‘maverick’ managements have exhibited great skill in indulging in irregularities. For example, one college near Madanapalle started in 2011, but enhanced seats again by showing the same infrastructure. For the college near Chittoor, there is a name mismatch on the land on which its society is registered.
A college in Puttur runs five colleges, all showing the same building, with utter disregard to norms. One college in Renigunta mandal takes the icing on the cake as its website shows Mamandur as its locality, but is run in rented buildings somewhere in Tirupati.
The demand for physical education was triggered by the rumour of large-scale recruitment of PETs soon. The candidates no longer need to clear the physical fitness test after the ‘mandatory’ clause was done away with.
As mere possession of the certificate is enough, it became ‘more valuable.’ While students in the past made a beeline to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the absence of well-equipped colleges here, the managements ‘filled the vacuum’ by launching new colleges in the same building, making a mockery of the norms.
Surprise visits
The NCTE requires a college to have at least 5-8 acres for holding games and sports, which is followed more in breach. Sri Venkateswara University, the affiliating body, is also under fire for its alleged negligence.
It had announced to crack the whip at the start of the academic year, but nothing happened later. “We formed an academic audit wing to rein in the colleges teaching law, education, physical education, management and engineering,” said Vice-Chancellor Avula Damodaram.
Based on the deficiencies noticed, the varsity makes surprise visits to the colleges.
“Now is the time to act tough. We expect to clear the rot that had piled up over the years soon,” Dean (Academic audit) K.V.S. Sarma said.
To make such erring colleges fall in line, the university is contemplating to either levy heavy penalties or disallow the students from taking examinations.
