Minority students in a fix over B.Ed. admissions

HYDERABAD: Many Muslim students who have cleared the Education Combined Entrance Test 2002 (Ed-CET 2002) are now in a fix. Reason: A number of minority B.Ed. institutions want them to take yet another test for admission.
Desperate, many of them have tried to seek admission to B.Ed. course in colleges away from their homes, but nothing seems to have worked.For, these minority colleges are invoking a Supreme Court order saying such institutions that do not accept government aid may have their own procedure of entrance.
However, this clashes directly with a government order (GO RT No.831 dated Dec. 29), which says these institutions would be free to admit candidates belonging to their community who have qualified for Ed-CET 2002 following the transparent method and ranking order of Ed-CET.
Importantly, all these institutions have received the GO, which is based on the Supreme Court order. But as many as 10 of them have decided to go against the state decree. The GO directs the colleges to follow the Ed-CET schedule on the cut-off date for receiving of admission forms and counselling.
"I submitted a demand draft at the cash counter of a minority institution, but they turned me away saying admissions are over," Adeeb Unnissa, one such harassed student from the city, said.
Another candidate, Mohammed Salim, said he too had submitted his application form at a Muslim minority college located at Nirmal, but they did not acknowledge receipt of his form.
Worse still, these students - many of whom have secured ranks in Ed.CET - are now being forced to write a separate test by some educational institutions.
"Now that I have to take one more admission test on January 18, the Ed.CET rank appears to be of no value," a candidate Basheer Jahan said.
A number of these institutes have issued advertisements for separate entrance tests. For instance, in at least two city colleges these examinations are scheduled for January 18 and January 20.
"Operating under the shadow of the Supreme Court judgment, the Muslim minority institutions are going all out to deceive their own minority candidates," AP Minorities Educational Rights Protection Committee convenor Md Faisuddin said.
The principal of a Nalgonda minority institution, which is insisting on candidates taking its own examinations, claimed that there was a "conflict between SC judgment and the government order".
Officials of the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE), however, played safe on the matter and only said the school education department ought to monitor the minority institutions and take appropriate measures.