Integrated PU colleges against rules, says govt

Students say they're beneficial, call department's rules outdated

With integrated pre-university colleges coming under the scanner yet again, colleges and students are questioning the rules of the department of pre-university education (DPUE).

After a complaint from a parent about two such PU colleges in the city, which offer coaching for competitive exams along with the PU syllabus, the department is preparing to take action against others. “We will form teams of officers who will inspect such colleges on a case-to-case basis. If they are teaching subjects outside the prescribed syllabus, we will take action,” an official of DPUE said.
However, colleges and students in the city say that the integrated approach is beneficial and the department’s rules are outdated.

Integrated colleges seamlessly take care of  students’ academics and competitive exam preparation under one roof so that they can save time and relax, said Sridhar G, founder of Deeksha. “In the 2000s, students would go to PU colleges just for attendance and after college hours, they would take extra tuition classes. The integrated approach began as a solution to this,” he said. Not allowing students to pick the academic approach which suits their needs would hurt their interests, he said.

Keeping in mind the changing times, the department should let students have the freedom to choose what works best for them. Rules should be student-friendly, Sridhar said.

Students agree and say that it spares them the commute from college to coaching centres. Rakshita, who completed PU from one such college said: “I had classes from 7.30 am to 4 pm. I had time to come home and relax, before revising my lessons. If I had gone to a regular PU college, I would have to go for coaching in the evening. It helped me save time.”

Though the course can be stressful at times, students said that when competition is high, one has to be prepared to work extra. “We know what we are signing up for. There are tests every weekend but since they are conducted regularly, we don’t feel the pressure. All that practice is very helpful,” another student said.

Some parents are, however, not convinced. “In my daughter’s college, for medical seat aspirants, they stress on Biology and give minimal importance to Mathematics while for engineering aspirants, more time is spent on Mathematics. Giving less attention to some subjects will affect their learning,” Pushpa, a parent, said.