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Time of India
2 days ago
- General
- Time of India
AP govt expands ‘Shining Star' awards to district & mandal levels
Vijayawada: After felicitating the state level rankers in both SSC and Intermediate, HRD minister Nara Lokesh has directed the education department to take up similar programmes at district and mandal level to encourage the meritorious students. He asked the officials to felicitate top rankers in SSC and intermediate examinations with shining star awards. Education secretary Kona Sasidhar asked the officials to ready the awardees lists based on the merit. He asked them to consider those students who secured 500 marks and above out of 600 marks in SSC for selection in a particular mandal. While two students from OC will be picked up, one each from SC, ST, BC and minority sections will be selected for awards. As many six students will be selected in each mandal and also three toppers in Children With Special Needs (CWsN) will also be felicitated. The awardees will cover students from all managements both in govt and private. In Intermediate, the students who secured 830 and above marks shall be considered for selection in a particular district in the preceding academic year covering all managements. Each awardee will be felicitated with a certificate, medal and a cash award of Rs.20,000. In addition, three students will be given Shining Star Award for their highest score in the entire District. Each awardee will be felicitated with a certificate, medal and a cash award of Rs. 20,000. Similarly, 36 awardees will be selected from 26 districts in Intermediate education covering all managements both in govt / private junior colleges in the state from MPC, BIPC, HEC, CEC/MEC and vocational streams and in each stream consisting of SC, ST, Minority, BC, OC and children with special needs (CWsN) categories for felicitation. School education secretary Kona Sasidhar directed the director of govt examinations and Board of Intermediate Examinations to prepare the list of the students based on the merit secured in annual public examinations. In case where multiple students have secured the same marks and percentage as specified above, all such candidates shall be considered for the awards in their respective categories, said Sasidhar. "The students shall be selected for Shining Stars Award irrespective of the income ceiling limit. The receipt of the award amount need not be linked to other welfare scholarship amounts received by the candidate by virtue of their other social/physical disadvantages, as the main objective of the scheme is to recognize the merit and to encourage continuity in their education. All the selected candidates shall be felicitated under Shining Stars Award," said Sasidhar. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
Hindustan Times
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Andhra Pradesh ends 15% quota in higher education institutions for non-locals
HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday ended the decade-long practice to earmark 15% seats in the state's professional, degree, and post-graduate colleges for students from Telangana and other states. Monday's order, signed by secretary (higher education) Kona Sasidhar, implies that all seats in higher education and technical education colleges would be effectively reserved for students from Andhra Pradesh. HT has reviewed the order. The 15% reservation for non-locals was made under Section 95 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, that required government and private institutions of higher education in the state to admit local and non-local students in the ratio of 85:15 for a period of 10 years from June 2014. The change in policy was made after the AP State Council of Higher Education reported that the government should protect the interests of the state's students seeking admission to various undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses in engineering, technology, pharmacy, architecture, Pharm D, Business Administration, Computer Applications, Law, Education and Physical Education colleges. Accordingly, the government has decided to amend the admission rules of educational institutions in the state, between Andhra University (AU) and Sri Venkateshwara University (SVU). Students of Andhra University region will be treated as locals in that area and 85% of the seats would be reserved for them. The remaining 15% of the seats would be treated as non-local category and students from Sri Venkateshwara University region could compete for this 15% quota. The same formula would apply to students of Sri Venkateshwara University region, who would get 85% quota and the remaining 15% seats in this region would be thrown open from Andhra University region students. 'Earlier, Osmania University (OU) was also included for admissions, but it has now been removed from AP's purview. So, from now on, admissions will be made based only on AU and SVU regions, making the entire 100% quota available only to AP students,' Sasidhar said. For determining the local candidate status, the order said students who studied in institutions in the erstwhile combined districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, and Prakasam would be considered locals for AU region. Similarly, students who studied in the districts of Anantapur, Kurnool, Chittoor, Kadapa, and Nellore would be considered as locals in the SVU region. The order said a candidate for admission shall be regarded as a local candidate in relation to a local area, if he has studied in an educational Institution or educational Institutions in such local area for a period of not less than four consecutive academic years. Alternatively, the candidate should have resided in the local area for a period of not less than four years immediately preceding the date of commencement of the relevant qualifying examination. Besides the AU and the SVU regions, the state government has also announced a few state-wide universities and institutions, in which students from both the regions are eligible to apply. They are: Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam (SPMVV), Tirupati, Dravidian University (DU), Kuppam, Dr. Abdul Haq Urdu University (AHUU)-Kurnool, Dr YSR Architecture & Fine Arts University, Kadapa, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies and Silver Jubilee Government College of Cluster University. In these universities, admissions to 85% of available seats shall be reserved in favour of local candidates of Andhra University and Sri Ven. kateswara University regions in the ratio of 65.62% and 34.38% respectively. The remaining 15% seats shall be open to students from both regions on the basis of their score. Andhra Pradesh's move comes months after the Telangana government on February 27 issued similar orders, scrapping 15% non-local quota in the colleges. Accordingly, 85% of seats of Osmania University (OU) Area will be reserved for local candidates, 5% for Telangana natives who have lived outside the state for at least 10 years, and the remaining 10% for specific categories, including children and spouses of Telangana government employees, central government employees serving in Telangana and children of people working in state-recognised institutions.
