Privatisation of higher education is rampant in both the Telugu States, if the statistics of the recent All India Survey of Higher Education of the Ministry of HRD are to be believed.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have the highest private unaided colleges in the country. If 76 per cent colleges are private in the country, Andhra Pradesh with 83 per cent of private colleges tops the list, closely followed by Telangana at 82 per cent.
Mizoram has the lowest with just three per cent and interestingly, even a big State like Bihar has just 10 per cent of its colleges under the private sector.
The survey reveals that government colleges in A.P. are just 143 as against 1,445 private colleges of which 1,336 are unaided.
Similarly, Telangana has 145 government colleges as against 1,223 private colleges of which 1,135 are unaided. So, only a few private aided colleges are functioning and that number is declining rapidly with the government not sanctioning new posts or extending financial assistance to the few aided colleges that are functioning.
As per the survey report, 8,86,741 candidates in A.P. are in the higher education sector, of which only 83,729 are in government colleges. Telangana is a bit better in comparison with 1,06,001 students in government colleges and 7,39,057 in private colleges.
The figures reveal the decline of government colleges and students ignoring them for various reasons, despite lower tuition fee.