JAIPUR: For the last three years, the state government has remained busy opening colleges to make higher education accessible to students in every corner of the state. Infrastructure and quality, however, do not seem to be the priority for the government.
More than 120 government colleges were announced in the last three budgets after chief minister Ashok Gehlot came to power in December 2018. In 2019-20, around 40 colleges were opened, followed by another 48 in the next fiscal. In the latest budget, announcement was made to add 31 more colleges.
None of the existing colleges has their own buildings, no faculty was appointed or recruited in the last three years nor any budget announcement was made for future recruitments. Most colleges are operating from two or three rooms inside some government schools and at many places students are seated on the floor.
Minister Bhanwar Singh Bhati told the state assembly a few days ago that for some of the new colleges, land have been allotted, but construction expenses will have to be borne from MLA/MP funds, Bhahmashah or through donations. While replying to the opposition, chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the government would provide Rs 100 crore to these colleges, but no budgetary provisions were made.
A faculty member of one of the new colleges said it is a herculean task now was to go door-to-door collecting money for constructing the building. “Are we donation collectors? It will take another five years to get at least Rs 2-crore required for the building,” said the teacher, who did not wish to be named.
At the Government College Pahari, Bharatpur, more than 250 students are being taught in four rooms of an ITI by one teacher. The college offers seven subjects, but has a teacher for sociology only, while students of other subjects are suffering. College authorities have sought recruitment of a geography teacher as it is subject with a practical paper.
Sonu Prajapati, a student at Pahari college, said students have protested several times and a memorandum was submitted to the SDM, but nothing has changed so far. “Students usually do not come to college as we all know it is of no use,” said Sonu.
Government College Kareda in Bhilwara has a principal and a teacher for 429 students. Students complain that the principal is usually busy managing the administration, so just one out of the seven subjects that the institute offers is being taught properly. For the rest of the subjects, students rely on private tuitions as raising voice against the government hasn’t yielded any results.
To provide faculty members in the newly opened colleges, the state government has formed a District Resource Allocation Committee (DRAC) in every district headquarters, which has a nodal college that shares resources with new colleges. The nodal colleges send teachers to the new institutes six days a month.
An education officer at one of the nodal colleges said, “We are already facing a 50% shortage of staff, but have been asked to send teachers to the newly opened colleges. Now our teachers go to remote areas six days a month. It is getting difficult to manage academics in our college.”
Teachers sent to different colleges for six days do not meet the needs of full-time classes and usually there is a gap of one month before the same subject teacher gets appointed again. In Choti Sarwan Government College, Banswara, most teachers appointed by the DARC have months of gap that breaks the continuity of the subject.
Criticising the DRAC system, Rajasthan University and College Teachers Association president Narayan Lal Gupta said it serves no educational purpose. “When decades old colleges are facing staff crunch, how are we supposed to send teachers to other colleges. In existing government colleges at many places, there is not a single teacher for most subjects. What is a teacher supposed to teach students in six days? We were expecting a budget announcement for new recruitments, as more than 2,500 posts of teachers are vacant in the state. Just announcing Rs 100 crore is not enough. We need at least Rs 600 crore to develop these colleges,” said Gupta.