74-yr-old retired lineman joins college to study BSc in Hyderabad

The septuagenarian secured a seat in the Government Degree College Khairatabad through the Degree Online Service Telangana (DOST) 2023.

Hyderabad: Age is not a deterrent for those yearning to pursue academics even after superannuating from their jobs. At 74 years, K Chinna Yerukulu, a former AP Transco employee, is in pursuit of gaining knowledge and has enrolled for BSc (Hons) Computer Science.

The septuagenarian secured a seat in the Government Degree College Khairatabad through the Degree Online Service Telangana (DOST) 2023. “I always wanted to study and reach great heights. But family circumstances back then did not allow me to study much and I got into the Transco job at a young age,” Yerukula told Telangana Today.

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The 74-year-old recently commenced his classwork and has been sharing his desk with teenagers. However, it was no cakewalk for the former AP Transco lineman to get admission.

From the upper age limit to Aadhaar details, he had to cross several hurdles. For candidates seeking admission through DOST, the upper age limit is set to 1973. But Yerukula was born. He approached the Telangana State Council of Higher Education and the Commissionerate of Collegiate Education to tweak the norm in order to secure admission. “We manually entered his details on the DOST website and ensured that he got a seat,” officials said.

After clearing Class X from the National Institute of Open Schooling, he cracked the Dr BRAOU’s entrance test and completed BA in Political Science, Sociology and Public Administration. He completed Intermediate in the vocation stream in 2021 and enrolled for diploma second-year electrical engineering as a lateral entry. However, he could not clear some papers in his diploma this year.

“I thought of joining the UG electrical engineering programme. Given the high fee charged by private engineering colleges, I decided to join the BSc (Hons) programme in a government degree college. My classmates, teachers and higher education department officials encouraged me,” Yerukula said.

This year, DOST’s admissions also saw a 75-year-old Army veteran, K Nag Shetty, enrolling for BA History, Political Science and Public Administration at the Noble Degree College in Dilsukhnagar.