Viewpoint: Corporate colleges rank war leads to legal battle

Narayana and Sri Chaitanya are undoubtedly two top corporate colleges in Telugu States. In the Telugu States where many parents aspire to make their kids engineers are doctors these two colleges are doing great business. Even though both are competitors they have a common batch of topmost students, called China batch (Chaitanya + Narayana) or Sharvani batch and usually this batch bags most of the ranks in all exams. This year the two Institutes are fighting over the ranks and exchanging war of words that finally culminated to a legal battle

Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions had a press conference and Sri Chaitanya chairman B.S. Rao and academic director Sushma accused Narayana Institutions of “misleading” parents by claiming top ranks as theirs. They said the JEE (Main) topper this year was a Sri Chaitanya student sent to the China batch and four of the top five national rankers were from Sri Chaitanya, but Narayana Institutions was claiming the rank holders as theirs. Also, they finally told, there will not be any China batch henceforth.

Narayana institutions also responded with equal vigor. They told the student attended China Batch (even though he is Chaitanya college student) and so they advertised it as “Sri Narayana Chaitanya” student got top rank. They remarked, they did same thing (as “Sri Narayana Chaitanya” student got top rank )previous years also when Narayana students attending China batch got ranks and they questioned why did Chaitanya did not question at that time. Also, they told, this is perfectly in sync with agreement they made while forming China batch. Narayana also told the student was with them till 10th and only for 11th and 12th he went to Chaitanya and that too Chaitanya rigorously persuaded to take that student. Finally the war of words intensified and Narayana told they will go legally in this issue as they did not break any agreement and Chaitanya told they will not have this combined batch anymore in future.

It is surprising as well as ugly to see corporate colleges fighting in press conferences as well as in courts on this kind of issue. It is to be noted that, couple of months back, a division bench of the High Court issued notices to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments and also to Narayana and Sri Chaitanya colleges regarding student suicides incidents that took place at these colleges in the recent past. There has also been wide debate in the states especially in the towns where such suicides happen, on why these suicides never reported in media. These corporate colleges are so successful in making sure such suicides are never reported in media but only their ranks are widely publicized in the same media. It is high time Telugu people to have right perception on such corporate colleges and also on the right meaning of education. Ranks don’t guarantee a happy life though they may provide a successful career. It is the all-round development of the student that makes his life happy, not just the ranks.

-ZURAN