What a beautiful gift from our government to students! “Our entire academic year is wasted thanks to some dumb issues. Plz conduct our exams on schedule”. This is what every student is pleading to the so called politicians of our state. But here the question is does it really fell on the ears of bureaucrats and how many of them are really serious on the issue?
Protests for and against a new Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh have forced universities and colleges to shut, jeopardising the future of lakhs of students. And there is a real danger of students losing an academic year. Many students in city are worried, They say the January 5 meeting in Delhi on Telangana has not taken away any of the uncertainty.
"Not getting to know when I will write my exams, what is the state of it. And if my exams get postponed even further and further, I may even lose an year and that will become a real problem for me later on," says Ankita, student of Aurora P.G. College.
“This is really very painful. We have been waiting for our Masters certificates. All the two years went quite well, but i dont know why we have become victims now. As we are in the final year, we have to think of our future. Due to this agitation, we are unable to do so”, she adds.
For over a month now, pro-Telangana protests on the Osmania University campus have forced colleges in the region to be closed. Exams have had to be postponed twice. Protestors may be aiming to correct the wrongs of the past, but that still can't justify putting the future of so many youngsters at stake.
The worst affected are the 10th and 12th class students. If the 12th class students loose one year, their dreams of becoming an engineer or doctor may collapse. With half yearly exams getting postpone due to the sankranthi week in many colleges, students staying in hostels will have to miss the festival as they can not go home and spend the festival there. The politicians and student leaders should realise that in these days of competions at all india level, the students of AP will go behind by one year because of this agitation. It is a pity that even the central government is only consulting political parties about Telanagan, leaving out intellectuals and educated persons out of it. Is a consensus among a few politicains is sufficient and justified to bifurcate a state?
Even as student union leaders and political parties are agitating for a separate Telangana state, forcing the city’s universities to stay shut for over a month, thousands of students studying in these universities and their affiliated colleges stand a risk of losing an academic year. JNTU and OU officials admit that if the current situation continues for more days, nothing can be done to salvage the year. If the exams are not held soon, city professors fear the students will have to forego a whole year as they will be behind schedule.
What’s worse is the fact that agitating students are ready to “forego” this academic year for separate statehood and are calling it the “Telangana sadhana year.”Caught in this crossfire are students of 300 engineering colleges and 98 MBA institutions affiliated to JNTU. The university which should have commenced its second semester by now, hasn’t yet completed its first semester exams”
Students who had plans to go abroad or appear for competitive examinations are also in panic mode. G.Sailaja, an engineering student of OU College of Technology, says, “From this year onwards, they have permitted third year students to apply for GATE. The exam will have questions from the final year syllabus too. We haven’t even started our second semester classes yet. The political issue that is being debated on is important, but not at the cost of our careers.”
Swati, student of VNR College of Engineering says, “To study abroad, we need recommendation letters and graduation certificates. We’ll lose six months if we can’t apply for the current intake.”
Some students are of view that this is collateral damage! The people of Telangana are not feeling the damage because they think were denied their share, they have nothing to lose. This is expected.. they don't care, there will be falls and spills before stability.
The Osmania university students Joint action committee on Wednesday clued-up the central government to come on a decision on the T-issue before 28th January or ready to face worst consequences in Hyderabad.
Anubha k. Singh
