Education board finally starts JEE, NEET coaching, gets lukewarm response

HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education, which finally started conducting coaching classes for students appearing for competitive exams in May, received a lukewarm response.

As the board failed to start classes until the second week of April, the students’ strength did not even reach double digits in most centres.

“Students might have opted for private coaching as we did not start classes till April 8 and this could be a reason for poor response. However, the number is slowly picking up and we are hopeful that the number of students will increase in the coming days,” said a highly placed source from the intermediate board.

The officials also attributed the lukewarm response to the fact that classes are being conducted in non-residential mode.

“The board has decided not to provide accommodation to students this time. This too has gone against us as many are reluctant to travel to the district headquarters every day,” the official said.

They claimed that while hardly a hundred students attended the classes on the first day, the number had increased to 250 on Monday.

The lecturers working in government junior colleges, however, blamed the lack of planning and said that officials should have done better.

“They waited till the eleventh hour to make a decision. Once, the board exams commenced there was no way to contact students, especially ones staying in remote areas. These classes were yielding positive results and they should have been taken more seriously,” said P Madhu Sudhan Reddy, president, Telangana Government Junior Lecturers Association.

As many as 1,000 students have been shortlisted and classes are being conducted in around 20 centres in virtual mode. Each centre can accommodate up to 50 students.

Last year, about 300 lecturers worked in shifts to conduct the classes during the summer vacation. According to the faculty, it took over two months to complete the exercise—collecting names of interested students and lecturers, requesting Telugu academy to send material and model schools to provide accommodation and facilitate summer classes for 2,500 students.