Integrated PU colleges in Karnataka: Boon or bane?

Gone are the days when students went from home to college to coaching centres during pre-university (PU) years. In the last few years, with PU colleges that offer integrated coaching classes mushrooming across the city, students spend close to 12 hours in colleges before going home. Many such colleges also offer boarding facilities and hence, for the better part of two years, students are engrossed in academics with little space for recreation. While there are many such centres up and running, government directives on them are far from clear.

Additional training

What are integrated PU colleges? While regular PU colleges offer the usual science, commerce and arts combinations, which are prescribed by the Department of Pre University Education (DPUE), integrated colleges offer additional training to prepare for competitive examinations like IIT – JEE, NEET, CET, CLAT, CPT and lately even UPSC.

The trend of such colleges started in the city around 10 to 12 years ago as education institutions aimed to cut down on the need for separate coaching centres by offering such training at the colleges themselves. This training is usually provided after regular classes, thereby extending the total hours spent at colleges to more than eight hours.

While in some cases, it is the parents who admit their students to such colleges, in others, the students do so of their own free will. Over the years, such courses have received as much praise as they have criticism . The extra hours, the ceaseless training and the academic pressure have led to many questions. The exorbitant fees has also attracted attention.

In the admission guidelines issued by the DPUE for the academic year 2022–23, it has been mentioned that illegally offering programmes in the name of integrated or bridge courses and charging additional fees for the same will lead to the cancellation of accreditation of such institutions. It added that legal action would be taken against the principal and the administration team of the institution. A number of combinations, which are approved by the government, have also been mentioned in the guidelines.

Colleges viewpoint

The colleges that offer integrated courses argue that they have permission from the government to offer these courses. “If we do not have permission, it will become illegal. But we do have permission for what we are doing,” said a staff member at one such PU College in Rajajinagar. When asked what is the difference between regular PU courses and integrated courses, they went on to explain, “If we teach one hour of PU curriculum, the next hour we will teach them either CET syllabus or JEE mains syllabus or NEET syllabus. We first solidify the basics and then teach advanced subjects based on them. This way, the students do not get burdened and their learning process is not hampered. It is a constructive approach and it depends on the choice of the students.”

Some parents do agree with the fact that it is the student’s choice. “I am very happy with the traditional way of teaching, but my daughter was very firm that she wanted to join an integrated programme only as she wants to become a surgeon. I know it will stress her out, but when the choice is right here, we cannot do much to stop our children from choosing such courses. So far, she has had no problems, but I have heard accounts of some of her classmates struggling,” said Vanaja P., a resident of Adugodi whose daughter is studying first PU at an integrated college.

For Bharathi G., admitting her son to an integrated college in Rajajinagar last year was a decision made to get him to concentrate more on his academics. But this was followed by shocks and regrets after the college demanded over ₹60,000 additional fee for a combined coaching of NEET and CET. Her son, Vishwas, said, “It is not extremely difficult to cope with, but I feel a sense of pressure being exerted on me all the time. I hardly get to play or practise my keyboard lessons with all the assignments and test preparation.”

From the mental health perspective of students, missing out on hobbies and interests has been found to lead to other problems, according to psychiatrists. They have observed that students who study in such colleges often suffer from examination anxiety and higher stress levels.  

“These days, preparation for competitive exams start from the eighth grade itself. Whether it is regular PU colleges and extra coaching or integrated PU courses, parents should ensure that the child gets some time to relax and engage in at least one hobby. Some students study continuously for 14 – 15 hours and we have noticed that with so much stress, they become very anxious before exams. In fact, the anxiety itself can impair their performance in exams. Especially with these competitive exams, they develop anxiety about getting into premier institutions,” said Dr. K. John Vijay Sagar, child psychiatrist, NIMHANS. He added that even residential schools that run such courses should make sure that children follow a healthy lifestyle, which includes indoor and outdoor games and one or two leisure activities. 

The college managements said there was a wrong perception among people that integrated colleges mean over 12-hour days. “Since we run a residential school, it does not mean that children are being taught for 24 hours. They have their yoga sessions, basketball or other sports classes. We also have counselling sessions for both students and parents to get out of stress and other general problems. Such integrated courses have helped many people crack exams, get good jobs and it has improved their lives,” said Sindhura, Managing Director of Narayana Group, which runs many educational institutions across country. 

When asked about the State government’s regulations surrounding integrated courses, she said, “Our legal teams usually handle whatever regulations that come up from governments from time to time. Integrated colleges are not new concepts, they have been around for decades now. We will check with the government’s new guidelines.”

Lack of clarity

Many educational institutions in the city and the state offer integrated courses despite the government’s new guidelines. However, the government officials themselves did not have clear answers about what will be done to address the confusion. “The department will study how these institutions are working and then issue a clarification,” said Ramachandran R., Director, DPUE.

For now, lakhs of PU students study in these integrated colleges and from a career point of view, the success rate is not uniform. While there is a higher success rate when it comes to engineering and medical, the same has not been observed when it comes to UPSC and CA-related courses, career counsellors have noticed.

“The effectiveness of it differs from one student to the other. In a way, integrated coaching is beneficial as students do not have to travel to coaching centres. But at the same time, since competition has risen higher due to such courses, the traditional way of studying by oneself has disappeared. With so many edu-tech companies and commercialisation of education, we do not know where we are heading. This needs to stop somewhere,” said Asha Latha T.L., career counsellor and a psychologist.

Admission guidelines (2022 – 23) from Department of PU Education

• Illegally collecting more than the prescribed amount of fees on the premise of of providing CET/AIEE/JEE/NEET, Integrated Course, Bridge course training to the students in PU classes, tying up with other institutions, resource persons and using electronic mediums to teach students, will all lead to the cancellation of accreditation of the colleges and legal action will be taken against the principal and the management.
• Those PU Colleges which have received their accreditation from the department should not use the names of any organisations, coaching centres or other institutions with their college nor run educational activities under such understandings. 
• If the colleges are run under names other than the ones registered with the department, then strict action will be taken against the management of such colleges. 
• Teaching students any material that is not prescribed in the syllabus and forcing them to buy guides or such books is illegal in PU colleges. 
• The PU colleges can only teach from the textbooks published by the department and should not force parents to buy any other textbooks for their children.