Unaided PU colleges seek nod for coaching classes on campus

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Unaided PU College Management Association (KUPMA) has demanded the state government to allow coaching classes to be conducted on the college campuses. 

In a meeting, chaired by Legislative Assembly Speaker U T Khader on Thursday where Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa was also present, the association submitted a petition to the government and requested to consider its demands.

Bringing amendments to the PUC admission guidelines to allow PU colleges to offer coaching classes for competitive examinations, especially for science streams, was one of the major demands of the association. 

“Coaching classes for science streams cannot be separated from the PU colleges,” said the association. 

The demand comes following the decrease in admission of students in the unaided
PU colleges as they do not offer integrated coaching for CET, NEET and other
examinations. 

“When the department framed the guidelines, there were very few competitive examinations and the demand was not much. But, today, without offering coaching classes in-house for competitive examinations, one cannot run a PU college,” the association office-bearers told the meeting. 

Every year, the admission guidelines issued by the Department of Pre-university Education say that action will be initiated against coaching classes conducted within the college campuses. This has forced the mushrooming of private coaching centres offering integrated coaching for various competitive examinations externally in association with the colleges. 

The association also requested the government to increase the percentage of reservation for students from other boards to state-run PU colleges. Currently, 5% of these seats are reserved for CBSE and ICSE students. 

It also demanded that the same be increased, considering the number of applications the colleges received every year.  

The association even asked the government to come out with a formula for calculating tuition fees after consulting the private colleges’ managements instead of doing it at the official level.