Bangalore: The State Government has said that it will resort to serious action against pre-university teachers who were boycotting valuation work.

Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti, who directed the Department of Pre-University Education to send across a warning to all the absentee teachers on April 23, told presspersons here on Thursday that a final warning had been sent across to the teachers on Thursday and if they failed to respond by Friday then the Government would be compelled to take serious action.

The absenteeism was much more in urban centres, particularly Bangalore.

It had also come to the notice of the Government that many of the teachers who had remained absent were indeed preoccupied with coaching for the Common Entrance Test for professional courses scheduled to be gone through on May 9. A section of the teachers has also confessed that CET coaching was much more lucrative than the valuation work.

In all, the Pre-University Department had deployed 13,000 teachers for valuation work and the absenteeism was notable in the science subjects — physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology. Interestingly, these were the subjects in big demand for CET coaching since many of the students were keen on pursuing higher education in either engineering or medicine.

Mr. Horatti said that of the 2,700 teachers deployed for valuation of science papers, 600 had remained absent, despite warnings. Of them, 35 had been suspended until further investigation and similar action would be taken against the others if they failed to respond to the Government's call.

Meanwhile, with the SSLC results out, the Government has also finalised the calendar for pre-university admissions for the coming academic year. Permission had been accorded for 200 new pre-university colleges spread across all districts.

At present, the Minister said, there were 3,010 pre-university colleges of which 907 were in the government sector, 529 aided colleges, 1,396 unaided colleges and 166 others run by municipal corporations and other trusts and agencies.

He said that all the pre-university colleges had to commence functioning from June 1 and the admissions to pre-university courses should be completed well before that date. In the case of government pre-university colleges, applications would be issued till April 30 and the filled-in applications should be submitted on or before May 4. The first list of applicants for admission would be announced on May 12, the second list on May 18 and the third and final list on May 24. The admission process should be completed by May 30.

Mr. Horatti said the Government had also fixed the fees for pre-university education.

In the case of government colleges, the total fee would be Rs. 970 for science courses and Rs. 680 for arts and commerce courses.

The private pre-university colleges had been permitted to collect a fee of Rs. 1,270 for science courses and Rs. 980 for the arts and commerce courses.

With reference to reports of sex education being imparted in CBSE schools in the State, he said the Government would direct the officials to inspect such schools and submit a report. With sex education banned in the State, the rule was applicable to all schools.

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