Educational institutions across Telangana will remain closed today after various students organisations in the state called for a state-wide bandh. The bandh comes in the wake of the proposed fee hike in private and corporate institutions, especially the engineering colleges in the state who are demanding a 15 to 20 per cent hike in the fee structure for various courses.
Most of the educational institutions in the state are shut and some schools have declared a holiday on Wednesday after the bandh was announced last week. The organisations participating in the bandh include the Students Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Federation (AISF), Progressive Democratic Students’ Union (PDSU), All Indian Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) and Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TVV).
Apart from a check on fee hike, the organisations have also demanded that proper infrastructure be provided in government schools, including the buildings of the Gurukul schools, and also quick recruitment of teachers into vacant posts in government educational institutions.
The proposal to hike fees for the private engineering colleges came up for discussion at a meeting of the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) on June 29, but a final decision by the committee is yet to be made.
For the academic year 2019-20, the colleges have lobbied for a 20 per cent hike for courses with fee below Rs 50,000 and a 15 per cent hike for courses with fee above Rs 50,000. However, this would only be considered a temporary fee hike, until TAFRC issues detailed guidelines regarding the fee structure.
According to the colleges, the fee structure had not been increased in the last 13 years, and claimed that they hadn’t been able to revamp their infrastructure due to this.
The other problems listed by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the students organisations also include creation of basic facilities in government hostels and junior colleges, allotting postings to TRT candidates and opposing closure of government schools.