Students convert to bag B.Ed. seats – From TOI Archives

From TOI Archives – T Sunil Reddy, TIMES INTERNET NETWORK Aug 27, 2001

Hyderabad: hundreds of students across the state are suddenly taking to christianity. this is not due to any love for the religion or because of the work of christian missionaries. these students are aspirants to seats in the bachelor of education (b.ed.) course. with there being many teacher jobs on offer, a b.ed. degree is a passport to secure employment in government service. for admission into b.ed. courses, the government conducts a common entrance test (edcet). however, minority institutions are empowered to make their own admissions, with the proviso that at least 50 per of their seats go to candidates belonging to minority communities. according to sources in the andhra pradesh state council for higher education (apsche), many of these colleges collect huge ‘donations’ from b.ed. aspirants and encourage them to to embrace christianity so that they can get in through the minority quota. not knowing the real motive behind the youngsters’ conversions, churches baptise them and issue certificates. armed with the conversion certificate, these sources say, the students enter the minority college, complete the course, and promptly return to their original faith. though the government did come up with a new rule prohibiting minority colleges from admitting students on their own, the college managements sued in court and got the order suspended. under this rule, the government had proposed that the edcet convenor would allocate the students to all minority colleges, based on the merit list. when contacted, apsche chairman prof c subba rao said the government was aware of these conversions of convenience and was trying to present an effective argument when the case comes up for hearing in court.

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