Delays in fee reimbursement by the Telangana government to colleges under the state’s Post Matric Scholarship Scheme is forcing students to either opt out of higher education or resort to loans to pay their college fees. The fee reimbursements of several students who were eligible for the scholarship in the previous years are yet to be made by the state government. In 2022-23, only 65,434 students received fee reimbursement, which is almost half the 2021-22 number of 1,11,905 students. Opposition leaders, including Telangana Congress working president Jagga Reddy, have demanded that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)-led state government reimburse the pending amounts, as various colleges are harassing students and their parents.
According to data released by the state technical education department in the last week of July, 25,869 candidates, including 11,555 SC/ST and minority students, who secured a rank less than or equal to 10,000 in the 2023 TS EAMCET (Engineering, Agriculture, and Medical Common Entrance Test) are eligible for full fee reimbursement under the post matric scheme. The components of post matric scholarship comprise the reimbursement of tuition fee (RTF) and maintenance charges (MTF) for professional courses in Bachelors and Masters programmes. Not every student who gets the scholarship is eligible for fee reimbursement.
Adnan*, who is pursuing MTech in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, is yet to receive the reimbursement of his tuition fee (RTF) under the Telangana Post Matric scholarships for the academic year 2022-23. In fact, his RTF for the year 2021-22, when he was pursuing BTech, has also not been cleared. Due to this, his undergraduate college Muffakham Jha College of Engineering and Technology (MJCET) refused to return his documents. Following this, his parents had to take a loan of Rs 85,000 to repay MJCET so that Adnan’s documents could be submitted for his MTech admission at Osmania University.
Adnan’s account is similar to that of several students belonging to minority communities who haven’t received their RTF from the Telangana Minorities Welfare Department. While officials from the Minorities Welfare Department say that it is just an administrative delay, students like Adnan remain uncertain.
Saleem*, a former student of MJCET, narrates a similar issue. “When the scholarship tuition fees weren’t sent to my university, they were unwilling to release my 10th class and pre-matriculation documents. I then had to put my higher education on hold and take up a job,” Saleem says. He adds that several students like him were unable to apply for various Masters programmes because of similar reasons.
Abdul Rehman, the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) Telangana state secretary for public relations, said, "Several students have been facing the issue of delay in fee reimbursements. A delegation of the SIO also brought it up with Finance Minister Harish Rao, but the issue still persists."
Speaking to TNM, an official from the Minority Welfare Department remarks, “The actual expenditure promised for various welfare schemes, including the post matric scholarship, is released incrementally. So, there is bound to be a delay.”
The Minority Welfare Department’s data for 2022-23 shows that 65,434 students have received fee reimbursement, which, even discounting the COVID-19 pandemic year that had lesser applicants, is considerably lesser than the previous years. It also shows that 1,11,905 students received fee reimbursement for 2021-22, while 71,429 and 1,32,785 students received reimbursement in 2020-21 and 2019-2020 respectively. According to the socio-economic outlook report for 2023 published by the state government, from 2014-2015 till January 2023, Rs 434 crore was spent on post matric scholarships and Rs 1575 crore on fee reimbursement.
The post matric scholarship in Telangana, which was continued from a similar scheme that had been implemented in undivided Andhra Pradesh, has been in existence for several years now. In 2012, there was widespread resentment towards the ruling Congress when it announced a cap of Rs 35,000 on the funds released to engineering colleges under the scheme. Students as well as political parties including the Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress party (YSRCP) had protested the decision.