Polytechnic staff down tools on ‘extras’
Non-cooperation over YISU merger begins today; TP-JAC wants polytechnics kept under SBTET. Government says ECET stays; students aren’t buying oral guarantees.
Polytechnic staff have paused board-linked duties while seeking a written framework for the proposed merger.
Telangana’s polytechnic staff will stop doing the “extras” from Saturday — no question-paper setting, no moderation, no evaluation — until the state backs off from moving them under Young India Skills University (YISU) and keeps polytechnics with SBTET and the Education Department, the Telangana Polytechnic JAC said. According to TP-JAC chairman M. Nagaraju, core academic and institutional work continues; it’s the board-linked duties that pause until there’s a written fix for diploma education, access to higher studies and staff service conditions. (Source: a report.)
Students have been on the streets against G.O. Ms. No. 97, worried about ECET and lateral entry into engineering. A government account this week says the restructure is administrative, diplomas and exams continue, staff terms won’t change — and “the ECET will not be discontinued.” The TGECET portal also shows ECET admissions activity this year.
TP-JAC says officials offered only oral assurances. Nagaraju’s line was blunt: when a minister himself says “I might lose elections next time… what benefit will you derive from my guarantee?”, students hear exactly how much a verbal promise is worth. The ask from staff is not hikes; it’s to leave polytechnics with SBTET, on paper, not in a speech.
What is still missing in public: the government’s written modalities, the exact text and effect of G.O. 97, and where ECET protection sits in law rather than in quotes. Until then, protests and non-cooperation are the timetable — and not because Delhi or Amaravati asked nicely.