Karnataka - Bangalore

`No pass result' PU colleges to be shut

Staff Reporter

Programmes being chalked out to ensure nil dropouts till SSLC, says official

REFORMS: Gururaj Karjagi (left) president, Academy of Creative Teaching; K.T. Srikantegowda (centre), MLA, and T.M. Vijaybhaskar, Secretary to the Government, Department of Primary and Secondary Education at a symposium on pre-university education in Bangalore on Saturday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Pre-university colleges in the State showing zero pass percentage will be shutdown, T.M. Vijaybhaskar, Secretary to the Government, Department of Primary and Secondary Education, said here on Saturday.

Speaking at a State-level seminar on "Pre-university education: challenges", Mr. Vijaybhaskar said of the 2,900 colleges in the State, many lacked infrastructure which affected the results.

Under part two of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to be implemented next year, the Centre had decided to focus on secondary and higher secondary education.

Of the 100 students who joined school in first standard, only 50 made it to SSLC and 25 to PUC. Only half of these students passed second year Pre-University Course, he said.

Programmes were being chalked out to ensure that the dropout rate remained nil up to 10th standard.

The target was to attain 65 per cent enrolment at the pre-university level, Mr. Vijaybhaskar said.

Most pre-university colleges in the State had only arts courses and many did not concentrate on science and commerce courses, he said.

PU students suffered because they were not as well qualified as those studying plus two in CBSE and ICSE schools.

The culprit was the lack of varied choices in courses offered to PU students, Mr. Vijaybhaskar said.

Inadequate training of teachers had been the bane of the system.

Although a first step has been taken through training teachers through Education Satellite (EDUSAT), more remained to be done, said Mr. Vijaybhaskar.

Under part one of SSA, it was mandatory for primary schoolteachers to undergo 15 days of training.

He said that under SSA part two, the training would be made mandatory for secondary and higher secondary teachers, he said.

Under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), classrooms were being built in 1,000 PU colleges in the State at a cost of Rs. 45 crore, he said.

In the next phase of RIDF, more classrooms would be built in 1,500 colleges at a cost of Rs. 66 crore, Mr. Vijaybhaskar said.

C. Yathiraju, working president of the Karnataka State Pre-University Colleges Principals' Sangha, said that the PUC was a critical stage in a students' career.

But it had been sidelined and efforts had to be made to design the courses keeping students in mind, he said.

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