Even though the number of aided colleges is on the rise, the quality of these institutions is severely impacted by vast vacancies in teachers and principal posts, said a principal’s association to District in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai here on Saturday.
Elaborating on the issue during the discussion on ‘Education in the next decade’, Y. Bhaskar Shetty, president of the Association of First Grade College Principals of Mangalore University, said only 10 out of 34 aided colleges in Mangalore Educational Block had permanent principals.
“For the past five years, the government hasn’t appointed principals. Instead, a senior lecturer is put in charge. This affects the running of colleges,” he said.
The association said out of 271 colleges in Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Dharwad and Gulbarga sub-divisions, only 83 principal posts had been filled.
Similarly, out of 9,700 posts of teachers in colleges, only 6,000 had been filled; while out of 6,500 posts in non-teaching staff, over 3,300 posts had been vacant across the state.
“There has been no recruitment for the posts of teachers since 1998. How can these colleges be expected to impart quality education?” Mr. Shetty said.
Responding to the requests, Mr. Rai said he would take up the matter with the Higher Education Minister, R.V. Deshpande.
Private universities
Earlier, during his talk on the future of education here, H. Vinod Bhat, Pro-Chancellor of Manipal University, stressed on expansion of institutes, while changing the teaching style to inculcate new media.
He also believed private institutes need to be given autonomy as they will power the next generation of students taking up undergraduate courses.
“India has a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of nearly 20 per cent. This is not enough. We need at least 25 per cent GER, that is, 1 crore more students in higher education. Out of the 1,000 additional institutes needed for this, it will be up to private institutes to set up at 850 of these colleges,” he said.
Principals of five colleges – Sulochana D. (Besant Evening College), D. Devraj (SDM Business Management College), Manjula K.T. (Besant Women’s College), Dhoma Chandrashekhar (Bhandarkars College, Kundapura) and Patric Menezes (Pompei College, Aikala) – who have retired this year were felicitated for their contributions to the teaching field.
