The Telangana government has issued show cause notices to 194 junior colleges for violation of guidelines issued by the State Board of Intermediate Education (BIE), Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari told the Legislative Council on Friday.
The Minister was responding to queries from members of the House, who had raised the issue of student suicides in the state, and asked what action the government had taken against junior colleges, who were the main offenders.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that the BIE conducted an inquiry, and found that daily hectic schedules, lack of holidays, frequent weekly tests and lack of proper facilities in hostels were some of the leading causes leading to stress and suicides among the students.
He also said that the police had registered FIRs in two cases and show-cause notices had been issued.
Last week, the TSBIE had issued instructions and guidelines for all the Principals of Junior Colleges in the state.
The list of 14 rules, tackled various subjects, which result in stress on the students and may lead them to take the extreme step.
Directing the management of the colleges to strictly follow the academic calendar issued by the TSBIE, the board also said that working hours should only be between 9:30 am to 04:30 pm.
"The management should employ professional counsellors to counsel the students regularly. The Counselling should be blended with fact finding exercises with the scope for development of remedial measures for the emotional and physical well being of the students," one of the points stated.
"Extension lecturers should be arranged by inviting experts in the areas such as building self-confidence, coping with anxiety, failure and success, improve concentration, career counseling etc.," the Board added.
As far as hostels were concerned, the Board insisted that overcrowding of students should be avoided, and sufficient facilities should be provided.
"Parents should not to turn their children as tools for realizing their unfulfilled dreams. The parent community shall be asked to give priority to the interests of the students in selecting the course into which he wants to take admission. The parents should also advice their ward to select the course as per their ability," the Board said.