Engg. aspirants caught in ‘web’

Web counselling introduced from this academic year for engineering and pharmacy courses doesn’t seem to be fair for students since it robs them of the comfort factor while choosing their choice of course and institution.

The process that is likely to reduce the cumbersome counselling procedure will create more problems for students rather than making them comfortable, feels J.R. Subrahmanayam, an IT expert who is involved with the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQUIP) of World Bank.

Though more than 3,000 options are being offered, students will not be able to exercise more than 20 to 30 options.

Realistically, every student looks at not more than 30 options taking into account the quality of college and proximity, which are two parameters that are generally considered while taking admission. In the previous online counselling procedure students had this advantage of comparison between these parameters vis-À-vis the choice of course. Even the top rankers will have a slight disadvantage in this aspect in web counselling and they may land up in the less preferred college or course, he feels.

Academics also remind that future of the student would get locked up during the counselling and now they would be taking a blind shot through this process. “How can such an unfair situation be allowed for counselling if the government feels the procedure is cumbersome and time consuming,” Prof. Subrahmanyam asks.

The possibility of candidates getting closer to their choice looks uncertain through web counselling, he feels.

Moreover, students will be choosing their preferences based on last year’s seat matrix but demand for courses change from time-to-time and previous year’s matrix cannot be the right model, feel many teachers. For example preference for Computer Sciences and IT will come down drastically this year unlike last year. A year before that situation was totally different. Such wild swings cannot be the basis for choosing preferences.
Apprehensions

Teachers also feel that web counselling for Polytechnics and Engineering colleges cannot be compared given the huge variations in numbers, demand, background of students and the value of degree. Moreover, the government has done little to infuse confidence among students and parents on the process apart from making them comfortable with the new system.

‘There is no short-cut to hard work’

About 20 per cent of students pursuing medical education in India drop out due to either losing interest in it or unable to understand the dynamics of the course due to various reasons and to help students of Katuri Medical College, the management organised a symposium on ‘Medical education’ on Sunday.

The symposium was formally inaugurated by veteran surgeon of Guntur Kasaraneni, who asked the students to protect the morality in the profession and said it was a sacred act of public service. Guntur Government General Hospital Superintendent D. Phanibhushan explained the latest trends, opportunities in medical education and said there was no short-cut to hard work. The students opting for the medicine stream need to get prepared for a long period of education till they completed post-graduation to become expert in any particular super-specialty.

College executive director Y. Rajeswara Rao said such symposium was needed to help students cope with medical education, and understand what were the openings for the students passing out of MBBS. College Dean KSN Rao explained about the importance of medical profession, importance of selecting the right institution, need for practical work and exposure in hospitals etc. The Katuri Medical College with latest equipment like MRI scan and CT Scan could provide good exposure to the students in the attached Hospital at Chinakondrupadu.

Some students took admission for fancy, but later choose not to pursue the profession, which was loss of time and money, said Mr. Rajeswara Rao.

Inter first year supplementary exam results today

The results of Intermediate first year advanced supplementary examinations (May/June 2009) will be released on Tuesday at 11.30 a.m., a release from the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) said on Monday. Students can access the results from a host of sources that include websites, phone numbers and even by short message servicing (SMS).

To know the results from the Parishkaram Call Centre (eSeva), dial 1100 from any BSNL landline in the State, urban e-Seva centres across the State and Rajiv common citizen service centres. Results can also be checked at the AP Online centres in the State.
IVRS

Candidates have to dial BSNL numbers 12630099 or 1255560 in Hyderabad. Similarly, Airtel users can dial 543212222 or 53030 or 52800. Hutch users can dial 56731; Idea users can dial 5545678, Reliance users can dial 51234 or 53030 or 53030101 or 530303. Aircel users can call 55500 and Touchtel users can dial 5432121. All users can obtain the results by dialling 1255510 or 1255524.
SMS

Students can also send SMS – all mobile service users IPEG1-space-hall ticket no. to 58888 or 5676750 or 52424. For vocational courses, students have to SMS as IPEV1-space-hall ticket no. to 58888 or 5676750 or 52424.

City students score Eamcet top marks

City students stole the show in the Eamcet-2009 results that were announced on Monday. The top five scorers in the medical stream and three out of the top five in the engineering stream are from the city. Ranks will be announced on June 22 after adding 25 per cent weight for Intermediate marks.

While students of Sri Chaitanya Group secured highest marks in the state in both engineering and medical streams, students of Narayana Group got highest marks in engineering and second highest marks in the medical stream. Ms Kota Keerthana, Mr Santhosh Swaminathan and Ms Nalla Raveena, all from Sri Chaitanya, top-scored with 149 marks out of 160 in the medical stream.

Mr Golukonda Bala Aditya, from Narayana Group, stood second in the medical stream with 147 marks. Mr C. Shivakumar Kash-yap, from Sri Chaitanya, shared the engineering stream top marks of 153 with two students of Narayana Group, Mr Gopala Krishna Murthy and Shaik Allauddin. As many as 39 engineering students and 78 medical students from Sri Chaitanya scored the top-100 marks; as did 52 students in engineering and 21 in medical stream from Narayana. Other toppers from Sri Chaitanya in the medical stream include Ms K. Meg-hana (147) and Ms K Krishna Teja (146).

Mr Raghavendra Mahen-drakar (148), Mr T. Venkateswara Rao (146), Mr M. Dheeraj Kumar (144) and Mr J. Govardhan Reddy (144) came on top in the engineering stream. From the Narayana Group Mr B. Sravan (152), Mr L. Santhosh Kumar (150), Mr G. Sai Sravan Kumar (150) did well in engineering.
In medical stream, the toppers from Narayana Group are Mr Ankam Sai Ram (145), K. Varsha. (145), Mr Srikanth Reddy Gangula (145).