Telangana defers intermediate–school merger, admissions to continue as usual this year

The Telangana government has deferred the proposed merger of intermediate and school education, deciding to continue admissions as usual this year. The move follows recommendations from the Education Commission and technical hurdles, with a final decision to follow legislative discussion.

Hyderabad: The Congress government has deferred the merger of intermediate and school education and announced that intermediate admissions would be conducted as usual this academic year.

This decision came after the Telangana Education Commission appointed by the Congress government recommended the abolition of the intermediate education system. The Commission wanted it to be replaced with Class XI and Class XII grades – similar to the CBSE model.

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On May 4, an admission schedule was issued by the Board of Intermediate Education. But, the very next day, the Board cancelled the schedule, citing proposed reforms in the intermediate education. This announcement triggered anxiety among students and their parents as the academic year is scheduled to begin on June 1.

However, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday directed officials to conduct intermediate admissions as usual this year. This decision was taken in view of the limited time for admissions and the various technical hurdles currently impeding the process of merger of intermediate education with the school education system.

The Chief Minister instructed that the admission process be initiated immediately to ensure that students do not face any challenges.

The Telangana Education Commission emphasized that the new education system would significantly reduce the number of student dropouts. Majority of States were already implementing Class XI and Class XII grade structures.

But, Telangana was still practicing the old system of intermediate education as a separate entity. As a result, the majority of students, who complete their education up to 10th grade in government schools, are not enrolling in the separate colleges designated for intermediate studies and instead they discontinue their education.

Against this backdrop, the Chief Minister suggested to integrate the intermediate education into the regular school curriculum as XI and XII, rather than maintaining it as a separate entity.

The Telangana Education Commission also highlighted the importance of merging intermediate education with school education.

In light of present situation, the Chief Minister held a meeting with officials and reviewed several technical issues and challenges associated with the proposed merger. Finally, it was decided to postpone the process temporarily.

Revanth Reddy directed officials to conduct extensive consultations with all stakeholders regarding the merger. He also suggested that the new committee (Keshava Rao Committee) constituted to formulate the Telangana Education Policy to study the issue and submit its recommendations.

“A final decision will be taken only after holding a debate in the Legislative Assembly,” Revanth Reddy said.