I am still trying to do what I think is right with regard to education

I have written two letters to Sri. K.T.Rama Rao who is a minister of importance for the Telangana State. Today again I have written one letter since I saw a news item in the New Indian Express which has interviews with certain people who have given falsified information regarding PhD admissions in the Osmania University. I have written a letter again today to counter the untruths that were given as truths to the press. I am putting up that letter here. I do not know if the mails that I am writing are being read by him or not but I am doing what I can. Here is the letter.

Honourable Minister Sir,

I am sorry that I am persisting with writing letters to you. What prompted me to write this letter to you (with the hope that you are reading my letters even if you are not replying to them) is the article that appeared in today's New Indian Express on the front page with a picture of the Arts College and some individuals who are part of an elected body of the university, complaining that Osmania University does not have enough faculty to guide students and therefore recruitment should be taken up. I would like you to know that three years ago the University gave admissions into the PhD programmes of various departments that exist in the University, to 1800 students in one go. What made this possible is that the cut off mark for considering a candidate as qualified was 15 out of 100. So people with 15 marks in an objective entrance which had questions like "Socrates was killed by A. hanging him to a ceiling fan B. a speeding car C. giving electric shock and D. making him drink poison. Everyone knows that Socrates belonged to ancient Greece and hence could not be hanged to a ceiling fan or die because of being hit by a car or through electric shock since electricity as we know it did not exist then. So the obvious answer to that is D. by making him drink poison. Despite such questions being asked (the exam pattern is multiple choice questions numbering 100) people could get only 15% and were given admission into the PhD programme. We are all saddled with lots of PhD students none of whom can write a thesis in any language. 

This situation is further exploited by some teachers who have started taking money and writing theses by using the method that I had explained in my previous missive. Previously there were MPhil courses with a restriction of 12 students every year and with selections taking place after the students had written long essays and passed the written test and then appearing and passing in an interview where they had to explain the subject or research and why it merited research. On completion of MPhil the PhD aspirants then had to attend an interview for admission into the PhD programme. Now there is a one hour multiple choice test and people who get 15% in the examination are taken as research students. Three years ago 1800 students were admitted into the PhD programmes of various departments due to 15% being the cut off mark for selection. The mega number of 1800 students being taken into the PhD programme directly has meant that all the supervisors have the stipulated number of research scholars working under them and so admissions into PhD programmes have become irregular. I understand that as politicians there are compulsions which call for a compromise on some of the values but in Osmania and other universities there are no values left and hence compromise can be made for anything or everything. Caste divides, religious divides have become the norm with all people in the University from the highest position holders through teachers, students to the non-teaching staff. These divides are today firmly entrenched in different identities and very often they clash. I do not know what the plans of the government are with regard to education (from primary to higher education) but if a sincere attempt is not made at least at to start setting some things right then this whole thing will collapse under its own dead weight. I once again request you to take my letters seriously, I am not insane. I have the best interests of the new Telangana State in my heart and I believe that real empowerment of people takes place when they get good quality education and I am sad to say as an insider of the system that institutional rules and regulations have been completely destroyed and any more of this takes place the university will exist in name only.

Yours Sincerely

A V Satish Chandra

Professor of Political Science (*Nizam College) 

Osmania University

Hyderabad - 500007

Telangana State

Mobile:+919949006185

Mail:avsatishchandra@socialsciences.in, avsatishchandra@gmail.com

*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University.

I hope that people do not think that I am mad or a saboteur of the system. I stayed in this city and country because of my love for them. I take people's money as salary and my conscience tells me that the least I can do is let the powers that be know some ground realities. I will try what I can and leave the rest to God.

Fate of universities in Telangana

This time what I am doing is different from anything that I did before. I am putting on my blog two letters that I sincerely wrote to Sri K.T. Rama Rao, who is the Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj. Ideally this should have gone to the Minister for Higher Education Sri Sri Hari, but given the talk that I hear that Sri K T Rama Rao is sincere in his attempts to develop the State of Telangana and since he is a young man with wider and better exposure to the world (I hear he was educated in the USA and lived there for sometime) I thought perhaps it would be more apposite to write to him. Another factor is that the Chief Minister of the State is his father.

The context in which these letters were written must clearly be established before I make my letters open on the blogger platform. The State government had advertised for candidates to apply for posts of Vice Chancellors of all the Telangana Universities all of which have not had regular Vice Chancellors for different periods of time. The advertisement had lowered the experience necessary of the prospective candidates from 10 years as Professors to 5 years. This has meant that a greater number of people became eligible for application and though I am not aware of who all applied, past experience clearly demonstrates that it is people who are willing to pay obeisance to their respective political masters who actually apply and begin the process of canvassing for the respective selves through those who have access to corridors of power. This tried and tested model has probably been the single most important reason for wherever the education system has ended up today. The days when sincerely constituted search committees were formed and they in turn sincerely identified the names of three eligible candidates all of whom were eminent scholars and made meaningful contribution to the cause of education have been long gone. But the search system meant that at least people with some academic credentials, however little they maybe, became Vice Chancellors.

The new idea of advertising for the post of the Vice Chancellors was mooted by the Honourable Governor of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh Sri E S L Narasimhan in order to draw applications from good candidates who maybe deliberately or accidentally left out by the search committees. The one thing that he did not think about was that he cleared the road for the worst among the academicians to apply for the post of Vice Chancellor. To aid confusion and corruption to this whole process was the UGC's conception and implementation of the Academic Point Index (API) which would be responsible for 80% of the marks that a candidate gets in order to become an Associate Professor from Assistant Professor and from Associate Professor to Professor.  Unfortunately this meaningless system has become applicable even for entry into a University. A candidate gets a certain number of marks for MPhil, PhD and published articles in peer reviewed journals. In India all journals are peer reviewed and therefore every candidate gets his/her articles published through plagiarism. Plagiarism is also used extensively by candidates for completing MPhil and PhD theses. The Indian Government runs an anti-plagiarism software called "Shodh Ganga". I think this is an amazing name.  Now somebody needs to tell the government or the HRD Minister or the Prime Minister that "Modiji/Irani Ji aapki Shodh Ganga mailee ho gayee". This software is like the various methods that are suggested to clean the Ganga river. Anyway all the universities in Telangana have decided that they don't want the polluted Ganga river so simply have avoided become part of the river and plagiarists have been breathing easy.

But this post is about people who are applying for positions of Vice Chancellors. The Chief Minister Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao said that for Osmania University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H)  only "Merit" will be taken into consideration but for the other smaller and newer universities considerations of caste, creed, religion will be taken into consideration. I have been aghast at this, since it is the newer universities that need Vice Chancellors with a vision and will therefore be able to build up these universities into credible educational institutions. To me it seems that all universities in India require Vice Chancellors who have the vision to create newer centres of learning which in turn will create newer and credible forms of knowledge. The country in general and the new State of Telangana in particular require Vice Chancellors who can stand up to all kinds of pressure and implement a vision that would be the hallmark of each of the universities.
So this is the long context in which I decided to write to Sri K.T. Rama Rao.

What you will see below are the two letters that I had written to the honourable minister with some hope, (I called it a flickering flame in one of the letters) and I did not even receive even on liner like "Thank you for your letter, will see what can be done".

Honourable Minister Sir,
Let me introduce myself to you first. I am, A V Satish Chandra,PhD, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Osmania University. It has long been my idea to get across the realities of higher education in Telangana to someone in power who would understand my angst  but till today I could not get your email ID. I am told that this is your official email ID, which means someone else will check it before you do. but I am still writing this letter to you with a hope that you will actually get to see it. Otherwise I just have to think, I at least tried.

What prompted me to write this letter to you now (apart from the fact that I have only just obtained your email ID) is the fact that the Government of Telangana State has advertised for the posts of Vice Chancellors to the various universities of Telangana.

My mail maybe a little long, owing to the subject matter, but I seek your indulgence because the matter is such that it cannot be stated in two or three sentences. Osmania University is now the breeding ground of corruption, lack of ethics among teachers, a complete failure in the provision of education, but students get marks in the 80-90% range. It has been often been said that the reason for this is that the students are bad. I would like to correct this misnomer. Osmania University has been ruined by teachers. I can tell you that except for two or three teachers in the whole university, nobody would get a job in another university. People cannot teach. I have known teachers personally who put in about 30 years of service without going to a single class. Various strategies have been evolved by the teachers in connivance with innocent students who seem to think marks are all that count.

Osmania University is a cesspool of dirty academics. Every year PhDs are produced by using a simple technique. There will be one thesis called "Assessment of Janmabhoomi programme in Nalgonda district". This will be taken up by another student who will change the title to "Assessment of drought relief programmes in Mahbubnagar District". All that the student does is change the name of Nalgonda to Mahbubnagar where it figures and Janmabhoomi to Drought relief programme. In this way thesis after thesis is being created and students who cannot speak in English or teach in Telugu have been given jobs.

The senior teachers do not want to engage classes, and so a falsified workload is sent to the university (the university administration is aware of this but plays along) and Academic Consultants and Part timers are taken on to do the job that is to be done by teachers. The sad thing is that these Academic Consultants have been designated Assistant Professor (c) where the C stands for Contract employee. Today these people are demanding regularisation of services. What you need to know is that both Assistant Professors (C) and the Part timers have not faced any interview boards. Service rules strictly say that for a selection to be considered as proper an interview committee consisting of the Vice Chancellor of the University, the Dean of the Faculty and the Head of the Department (for which the interview is being conducted) two subject experts from outside the university (one of whom is a UGC nominee) women and dalit representatives as observers so that no wrong is being committed to them. None of the Assistant Professors (C) or Part timers have faced such a board.

Then there is a question of constituent colleges which are actually off campus colleges of the Osmania University and these are the Nizam College, University College for Women, Koti, Saifabad Science College near Masab Tank and the PG College at Secunderabad. Along with the main campus even these colleges claim that they do not have enough staff. Of these Nizam College and University College for Women enjoy the status of autonomous colleges, which means that they get an autonomy found and both have been Colleges with Potential for Excellence which means additional grants for research. In the case of the Women's College the status of CPE has been withdrawn by the UGC due to no research activity. That is the fate that might befall Nizam College in the beginning of 2017, when it is due for review.

Apart from this the University itself has the Status of University with potential for Excellence (UPE) and two and half years have passed and none of the Centres (about 4) have started any work. The University is due for NAAC accreditation and at this rate it will get a B grade or even C grade which automatically means that the status of UPE will be lost and along with that a large quantum of funds. The UGC is no longer giving out doles. It expects the departments and the universities to pursue research and it is on the basis of that, that it will release funds. The UGC has granted two independent centres; Centre for Gandhian Studies and Centre for Indira Gandhi studies. Research in this centres means that more and more money will come in, but unfortunately they are simply sitting there with no premises even and no work being done.

Sir, Osmania University says that it has a severe shortage of staff. Nizam College and University College for Women also complain of this. Just before bifurcation of the State, Nizam College was picked up by RUSA (Rashtriya Ucchatar Siksha Abhiyaan) for becoming a University. Now the University College for Women is also eligible for it. If these two colleges are spun off into universities, then most of the staff will have to go back to Osmania University, which means that there will be no shortage of staff and no need for Assistant Professors (Contract) and Part timers. If Nizam College and University College for Women become universities (the latter can be the first Women's University in Telangana) and if rules of employment are strictly followed they will emerge as good universities. A bulk of Osmania Universities' staff is due for retirement from service in the next three years. Those posts can also be filled up with worthy candidates again with merit being the basis and following the rules to the T.

As far as the new universities are concerned I have some ideas about those too. Instead of being just universities they can be converted to Centres of Advanced research in specific areas. Already my letter is rather long, if you can give me an audience for 15 minutes I can explain and substantiate further all the things that I have written. Please do not take me for an eccentric person or as a person with some hidden agenda. I am concerned for my State and Country.

I wrote this letter to you because you are someone young (much younger than I am) and when I hear you or listen to you, I get the feeling that you mean what you say. It is that hope that has made me write this letter to you. I ask for your forgiveness if you believe what I have done is wrong. But I live in the hope that somethings would change and the education system is better. In fact, I have been working to raise funds to improve the quality of school education through use of information technology and there are a lot of people who tell me that I suffer from a Mahatma Gandhi complex because I want to do these things.

I apologise to you for this long letter and somewhere in my heart there is a flickering flame which wants to believe that things will improve. Thank you Sir, Jai Hind

Yours Sincerely
A V Satish Chandra, PhD
Professor of Political Science (Nizam College*)
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 500007
Telangana State
*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University


Honourable Minister Sir,

I had sent you a letter in the afternoon of 30/12/2015 and thus far I have not heard back from you. I think somebody in your peshi who accesses your public mail, probably did not report of its existence to you. Maybe you are still thinking about it (if you have received and read that mail) I do not know. In the meanwhile four prospective candidates have approached me to prepare their CVs for them in such a manner that they look good. I have been very ill for sometime now and I have been using that as an excuse to tell them that I cannot do it now. Some of the more persistent ones are waiting for me to recover so that I can manufacture impressive looking CVs for them. My heart and mind both tell me that this is wrong, so I will not do it. I have lived my life on the principle that when something bad is happening, for that bad to grow all it needs is a few good men to remain silent and not do anything. I have taken salary from OU for 22 years thus far and it is this salary that kept me and family reasonably comfortable without any crisis. I am aware that the money comes from the people of the country and the state.  It hurts me to see that a public institution created with the explicit purpose of educating students, so that they can use the opportunities and come up in life, is blatantly being  used for everything other than education.

When I applied for the Girton Fellowship which could take me to England, to Cambridge University and another to the Oxford University I received a letter each from both universities which clearly stated that in order to be considered eligible for Girton fellowship (there are only three worldwide) and other fellowships for teachers  I should be from any of the Central Universities or well known Universities such as Osmania University, Calcutta University etc.From that level of prestige the university has now acquired a notorious reputation of a non-academic institution. I feel sorry for all those people who built the university to the level that it had become known worldwide as a good institution of higher, because what is left  of the people who built this university,s reputation as an institution of excellence is a legacy that today is zero. I saw the search committees constituted for the identification of appropriate candidates and much to my sadness I see names of people who actively contributed to the fall of the university. These people cannot identify  brilliant persons because what that person says will be incomprehensible to them. They will select another notorious person and the university will fade away into oblivion. If you do not get to read this letter and the one above or if you see it as a rant of a madman then the flickering flame of hope that is still there in me will be put extinguished forever. I hope it does not come to that. Thank you .

Yours Sincerely
A V Satish Chandra, PhD
Professor of Political Science (*Nizam College)
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 500007
Telangana State
*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University.

I know that this post is a bit too long even for the most patient or readers. I ask you to give me a little more latitude and finish my story with what Prof. M. Kodanda Ram Reddy had to say recently about politics in Telangana. He said he was sad that the new state was following the same old practices in terms of the TRS wooing elected representatives from other parties to its own ranks. I have no idea what is going on in Prof. M. Kodanda Ram Reddy's head now and during the agitation, but I am surprised that he thinks it is somehow very bad that the old political practices are still be continued. Why would they change? Telangana is not a new country nor is it a state that said it will change politics. After all the politicians of Telangana are good old and well seasoned people who were there in politics for a very long time. In fact, I probably won't be too much away from the mark if I say the TRS is the problem child of the TDP and still has various members of that party, starting with the Chief of the party and the Chief Minister of the State (and his son Sri K.T. Rama Rao got his name from N.T. Rama Rao the one time supremo of the Telugu Desam Party) and many more members whose names I do not remember to well and that exercise does not have a place in this post. At the height of the agitation when students were saying that the new state would provide them with jobs due to their participation in the agitations for separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, I clearly told them once the new state is formed wait for 5 years and tell me what changes they saw for the better.