The Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy's announcement that scholarships and reimbursements would be separated this year adds to the state of confusion students find themselves in. The Chief Minister said that the government would support the education of students studying in government junior colleges.

It would also pay the fees of those students who secure a rank under ten thousand in the EAMCET exam.
Kiran Kumar also asked colleges to fall in line and comply with the norms spelt out by the regulatory bodies which inlude JNTU, AICTE and APSCHE. Management seats had to be filled as per merit, he said and added that donations and collecting fees under one pretext or the other, would be a thing of the past. On the aspect of infrastrucutre, facilities provided by colleges and faculty recruited by them, Reddy announced that the task force that had been formed for this express purpose would scrutinize every angle thoroughly. The task force report would be available online, according to the Chief Minister.
While students studying in government junior colleges deserve to be supported, the overwhelming question that is to be asked is—how many students can government junior colleges admit? If anything, they are even more pathetic in terms of infrastructure and facilities. How much teaching actually takes place in government colleges is another matter altogether.
The mushrooming of hundreds of private junior colleges in towns and cities across AP was a result of the growing needs of students. It was, and continues to be, a simple equation of demand and supply. When the government says it would bring in regulation of one kind or the other, this is bound to have an impact on the entire scene of professional education.

Andhra Pradesh has 2.78 lakh engineering seats for about 2.02 lakh students who cleared Eamcet-2012 . This itself tells us that we have more seats than students and that many colleges have no takers..

The number of engineering colleges grew from 375 in 2009 to 717 in 2012, with more than 20% of the total number of engineering colleges in the country located in AP. The state government is all set to run all the engineering colleges through a scanner through the constitution of the task force. Meanwhile the AP high Court has asked the state government to place before the court the inspection reports of its task force. In other words, the report is bound to come in for legal scrutiny.

All this adds up to the fact that students are still not sure as to whether their ordeal ends here thanks to the bumbling ways of the state government and are not sure if the academic schedule would be on course this year.
-observer@sakshipost