Hyderabad: State government’s failure to release the fee reimbursement and scholarships is making life miserable for the private educational colleges. There is a big question mark over the livelihood of those lecturers working in these institutions. The parents of the students on their part are unable to pay fee to the colleges due to their own financial crunch in the wake of coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown. In such a situation, the college managements are finding it hard to continue their educational activities.
Till now, hundreds of junior and degree colleges were closed and many more are likely to follow suit. Due to the non release of the fee reimbursement and the scholarships by the state government, the private college managements are unable to pay salaries to their teaching staff. In such a situation, the lecturers and their families are finding it extremely difficult to make both ends meet.
Currently, the total arrears of the fee reimbursement and the scholarships has exceeded Rs. 3,000 cr and by adding up the past arrears the aggregate figure comes to Rs.3270 cr. There are more than 14 lakhs students who are eligible to get fee reimbursement and scholarships. They are the students of Inter, degree, PG, Engineering, MBA or MCA.
The fee reimbursement program was launched in 2008 for the backward class students. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao continued this program after the formation of Telangana state. Currently, Rs.35,000 is being released for the engineering students while the Pharmacy, MBA and MCA students are getting Rs.27,000 as fee reimbursement. The students as well as the college managements are facing great difficulties owing to the non release of the fee reimbursement on time.
Since March last year, the education system has been adversely affected due to Corona pandemic. Online classes have been started from September. The state government’s failure to release fee reimbursement lead to the closure of 123 private junior and 79 degree colleges.