Hyderabad: Away from the popular science streams, the Intermediate results this year saw several students excel in CEC (Civics, Economics, Commerce) and HEC (History, Economics, Civics) courses too — despite a moderate overall performance in these streams. Speaking to TOI after the release of results on Sunday, many of these students shared how they had to move to govt junior colleges after class 10, as most private institutes do not offer these combinations. Instead, their focus is largely on MPC (Maths, Physics, Chemistry) and BiPC (Biology, Physics, Chemistry).“I was very keen on pursuing history and economics. But when I was looking for good private colleges, after class 10, I didn’t find many offering the stream. Since I was sure of my stream I decided to opt for a govt college instead,” said Mani Sampanna Nibhanipudi, who secured 985 (out of 1,000) in her inter second-year. The HEC student from Govt Junior College, Paloncha (Bhadradri Kothagudem) now wants to pursue a BA in Economics from Delhi University. “My goal is to eventually crack either UPSC or the Telangana Public Service Commission exam,” said Sampanna.B Naga Latha from Khammam too faced a similar issue when she went looking for HEC courses. Now, however, she is glad to have enrolled at the Govt Junior College, Wyra. “I could score 941 only because of the faculty there. They also guided us in our preparation for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) to central universities,” said the teenager. Latha now wants to study BCom and later appear for bank jobs. “I would want to pursue chartered accountancy, but might be able to do so due to financial constraints,” said the daughter of a salesman. Latha’s mother works as a farm labourer. Given the growing demand for these courses, academics stress the need for more colleges in the private sector to offer them. “There are a lot of avenues now available outside the usual science streams. Students interested in pursuing them must be encouraged by making more seats available to them. We should also strengthen our faculty base for it and ensure that even private colleges offer these courses,” said K Lakshminarayana from Telangana Save Education Committee. Principals of govt colleges admit to institutions increasingly becoming an option for students interested in commerce and humanities. “Only a handful of private colleges offer streams like HEC and CEC while almost every govt college has these courses. Such combinations are often chosen by students interested in public service commission exams or those who prefer humanities subjects,” said P Shankar, principal of Govt Junior College, Paloncha.Incidentally, the pass percentage of second-year intermediate students in both HEC and CEC this year remained below 50%. In case of first year, the pass percentages were 34.34% and 44.9% respectively.
