RGUKT admissions: Private school students bag more seats
Govt school students lose out due to new selection method, allege student leaders
Nirmal: The Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT) in Basar is essentially meant for students from government schools in rural areas to pursue quality higher education. However, ironically, students from private schools have bagged more seats in RGUKT than students from government-run institutions for the first time this year.
The primary objective of establishing RGUKT was to provide high quality educational opportunities for the rural youth of the State. As per existing selection process, meritorious students from government schools are given admission for the six-year integrated engineering courses offered by the institution. The admissions are carried out based on the statutory reservations of the State.
But, admissions into various branches of engineering were taken up based on merit in Telangana Polycet-2021 marks secured in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry followed by reservations, which is against the usual practice of admitting students based on their marks in Mathematics and Science subjects in Class X this year. The selection process was altered due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, which necessitated cancellation of the SSC examination and declaration of all students as ‘pass’.
Out of the total 1,404 seats, 766 seats were secured by students of private schools as per the list of provisionally selected pupils declared by the university on Thursday. This means 54.5 percent of seats were clinched by students of the private school, while students studying in public schools accounted for 45.5 percent of seats.
“Usually, 99 percent of seats are bagged by students belonging to government schools. The new selection method has apparently helped pupils of private schools to crack seats at the RGUKT. This is against the very objective of the institution. Authorities should follow criteria that ensure justice to students of public schools,” a student union leader opined.
According to authorities of the varsity, the counseling of provisionally selected candidates would be held from September 1 to 3. Counseling of unfilled seats under Global category is going to be conducted on September 4. Announcement of Phase-II and special categories selection list would be made on September 8.
Authorities of RGUKT were unavailable to comment when contacted.
Applications declined
In the meantime, the number of applications was drastically dropped in the 2021-22 academic year. As many as 19,490 applications were received as against 40,158 applications registered in 2020 and 34,217 in 2019. The applications plummeted by 106 percent. Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the decline, as per the officials of the varsity.
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.
Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .
