As the news of Telangana Government cancelling EAMCET paper broke, Venkateshwara Rao was convincing his daughter to get ready for the third EAMCET when his phone started ringing.
“Sir, we’re offering one month coaching for medical entrance just for Rs. 33,000,” the caller said. Not just Rao living in Hyderabad but scores of parents, whose wards have no option but to appear for EAMCET III due to leakage of earlier test paper, across the State started getting such calls from ‘medical academies’ and ‘coaching institutes’.
“Whatever be the reasons for EAMCET II cancellation, a third EAMCET means business for colleges and coaching institutes and a burning hole for parents’ pockets,” feels V. Satish, a commission agent from Parkal of Warangal district. While it translates into one more month of stress for the already frustrated students, surely parents have to re-work their budgets.
Already, considerable number of them had spent more than two to four lakh rupees on their wards. One lakh rupees each for first and second year of intermediate course was the fee. Some of them had to incur an additional sum of two more lakh rupees for the long term coaching which lasts for 10 months. That was not adequate this year.
While Telangana Government postponed the test from May 2 to May 15, they had to spend money on extension of coaching classes. In between, the Supreme Court announced that NEET was compulsory for all States.
One institute approached Srinivasa Rao in the city offering special coaching for NEET for Rs. 30,000. He paid Rs. 13,000 for NEET coaching as advance. Within days, the Central Government announced that Telangana was exempted from NEET for the present year.
“When I approached the institute, they returned only Rs. 5,500 and kept back the remaining sum. I couldn’t do anything,” he said. Since the second EAMCET was scheduled for July 9, some parents admitted their children in ‘medical academies’ offering expert guidance in city and neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh.
For this, they had to shell out an additional amount of Rs. 30,000. With the Government on Tuesday announcing a third EAMCET to be held on September 11, they already started getting calls from institutes. “It is a dicey situation. Having studied all these days in hostels and institutes, they might not be able to study with equal seriousness from home,” say the parents.
