Social welfare colleges on academic high

Girls from residential degree colleges make a mark

March 20, 2017 08:02 pm | Updated 08:04 pm IST - HYDERABAD

For the 3,500-odd girls studying in the 23 new residential degree colleges started by the Government and run by the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions (TSWREIS), it was not only a means of empowering themselves through education but also an escape from early matrimony!

And, they have already ensured that the opportunity to get educated is not wasted in crossing the distinction mark in all the public universities their respective colleges are affiliated with. The average percentile of most of the girls is more than 85 when the general score elsewhere is not even half these marks.

“We are waiting for results of other universities. Our first-year results have been exceptional also as the students prepared their own textbooks with the help of teachers and reference material,” exults TSWRIES secretary R.S. Praveen Kumar.

The Government gave permission for starting 30 residential degree colleges (BA, B.Com & B.Sc) across the State for women last year and within no time admissions were done and classes were started in make shift buildings not to waste any time. And, since it took a few months to get textbooks students were encouraged to make their own study material.

“Reputation and record of our residential schools were sufficient to get admissions. A majority were from our own schools and rest from Zilla Parishad schools. If not for these colleges, all these girls would have been married by now,” avers Mr. Kumar.

Not only the girls get food, shelter and education, each student gets three sets of uniforms, one sports dress, a pair of black shoes, a pair of sports shoes and a track suit. Within a year, all these students can expect to move into brand new buildings with the approvals given for all the colleges and 104 new social welfare schools-cum-hostels.

About seven acres has been allotted to each of the institution and currently, estimates are being prepared by the Education Welfare infrastructure Development Corporation. Each institute will be built on a seven-acre land with one lakh square feet built-up space to house the classrooms, dining hall, dormitory, kitchen, computer room and other necessary infrastructure.

“We will be having auditoriums for colleges and activity rooms for schools in the new buildings,” says the secretary. While each college building will be built at a cost of Rs.30 crore, school buildings estimate is Rs. 20 crore.

More interestingly, a few building designs and colour schemes are being done by Swaroes - alumni network of the hostels - K. Suresh of Rajampet school and now a vice-president in Oracle and qualified architect K. Rajkumar of Medpally school.

Schools of excellence

Four schools of excellence in the fields of mathematics, computer sciences, machine tools; life sciences, bio-technology, pharmaceutical sciences; business, commerce and trade; Humanities with concentration on history, political science, public administration etc.

These are sought to be established in the remaining seven women’s residential degree colleges proposed to be set up in different corners in addition to the existing 23 already functioning since last year, according to TSWRIES Secretary Praveen Kumar.

The objective is to identify students’ aptitudes and help them master the subject in association with the industry and research institutes. Humanities will help the girls to focus on taking a crack at the civil services. All the colleges will be linked with an exclusive high capacity internet cable to help organising online classrooms and interactions with all the hardware in place.

Mr. Kumar is particularly pleased that the Chicago State University has consented to handhold the new colleges in the academic curricula. He hopes to have more such tie-ups with prestigious institutions for the girls to fly high.

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