The principals, lecturers, and non-teaching staff of the government and aided PU colleges in Mysuru district have strongly opposed the State government’s move to bestow administrative control of the PU colleges and the offices of the deputy directors in the respective districts to the Chif Executive Officer (CEO) of the respective Zilla Panchayats (ZPs) in the State.
They also opposed the three annual examination system for the second PU students.
Raising the issues demanding immediate attention from the government for restoring the identity of Department of Pre-University Education in the State, the Mysuru units of the Karnataka State PU College Principals’ Association, Karnataka State PU College Lecturers’ Association, and the Karnataka State PU College Non-Teaching Staff Association jointly staged a demonstration in support of their demands at the deputy commissioner’s office in Siddharthanagar and submitted a memorandum.
While expressing their disagreement with the move that designates PU education in school education that eventually results in “PU Education losing its identity”, the associations said the order issued on October 18 this year that assigned the supervisory control of PU colleges and the DD offices to the ZP CEO should be withdrawn. The PU colleges should remain under the direct control of the government through the director of the PU department.
Oppose Three Annual Exam System
The associations argued that a three-annual examination system for second PU students was not in the interest of students as it would make them “non-serious” to exams. This is already being seen in the approach of the students’ post-announcement as the best marks in the three examinations will be finally considered, according to the protestors.
The annual examination conducted by the PU department was viewed as one of the best considering the way it was conducted. But the new system may collapse the overall examination system and the one annual exam pattern should remain in the interest of the students, said Mysuru district’s Karnataka State PU College Lecturers’ Association president Mahadev M.M.
The associations said the district units across the State staged protests on Thursday in support of their demands. A common memorandum was submitted to the deputy commissioners in all the districts to highlight the problems and issues.
During the demonstration, the participants said the issues raised today need to be addressed on priority for upholding the identity of the PU education which was the result of the Kothari Commission recommendation and the report by P. Mallikarjunappa headed committee in 1971.
The then Chief Minister late S. Bangarappa and the then Education Minister M. Verappa Moily were instrumental in the establishment of the Department of Pre-university Education in 1992 (PU Board came in 1971). The PU education is a bridge between the school education and higher education. Such a model exists only in the State and education experts from other States visited Karnataka to study the system that needs to be safeguarded, they maintained.
A Statewide indefinite agitation has been planned at Freedom Park in Bengaluru from December 1 if the demands remain unfulfilled, the associations said.
