After announcing that the SSC (Class 10) Board exams will be held in July, the government has now decided to cut down the number of papers from 11 to seven.
“Conduct of the SSC exams in adherence to the COVID-19 protocols is a challenge. We don’t want the students to get exposed to health threat during the examinations,” Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh told The Hindu on Wednesday , emphasising that safety of the students was paramount for the government.
The Minister referred to suggestions from many quarters that the exams be done away with in view of the stringent restrictions on the movement of people due to the lockdown, and said, “It will not be in the interest of the future of the students.”
Acknowledging the fact that “this period of uncertainty” had put tremendous pressure on students in the last three months, he said the exams were first postponed as the dates overlapped with the local body elections, and later it was due to the lockdown in the aftermath of the outbreak of COVID-19.
Fee reimbursement
When pointed out that the High Court had observed that GO 15, issued on March 24, stands suspended till further orders, the Minister called it “unfortunate.”
The GO deals with the Department of Higher Education and notified the fee structure for private unaided engineering colleges offering B. Tech courses for the year 2019-20.
“GO 15 is the prerogative of the government. The fee reimbursement and fee fixation have been done based on the recommendations of the Higher Education Monitoring and Regulatory Commission. The idea is to make education accessible to all by creating a level playing ground,” he said, arguing that when educational standards were fixed by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), a uniform fee should be charged from all students.
Mr. Suresh said the government wanted the fee regulatory commission to strictly go by the expenditure the colleges incurred in providing education. “Based on that, we are giving fee reimbursement. But a few colleges are not happy .”
He said the fee regulatory commission was a statutory body created by enacting a law in the Assembly and headed by Justice Eeswariah, and the fixation of fee was based on scientific analysis. “We will not encourage the commercialisation of education. The promise on full fee reimbursement is part of Navaratnalu and the government is determined to fulfil it,” he said.
He also said it was unfortunate that instead of appreciating the spirit behind the move, some people were opposing it, but “we’ll approach the court again and keep our word given to the students and parents.”
