Dakshina Kannada gets its first govt evening college

MANGALURU: Dakshina Kannada district will get its first government evening college, which will come up at P Dayananda Pai Satish Pai Government First Grade College (GFGC), Car Street.
Though University College at Hampankatta has been running an evening college from the past six years, it is a constituent college of Mangalore University, while the one at GFGC is the first government evening college under the department of collegiate education’s jurisdiction, that covers three districts.
The college was sanctioned under the state government’s Sandhya Shakti scheme to manage the extra rush of admissions to undergraduate courses, and cater to students in the lower income group.
The college will come up at the existing P Dayananda Pai Satish Pai GFGC, Car Street campus, which has the highest number of admissions among government colleges in the district. Apart from Dakshina Kannada, the department of higher education has also permitted opening colleges in 10 other evening colleges, in 10 municipal corporation areas in the state.
Dr Jenifer Lolita C, joint director, collegiate education, Dakshina Kannada, said that it is the first such evening college under its jurisdiction, and will cover Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts.
Starting from this year, it will offer courses that are in high demand, and job-oriented courses like BCom and BCA, that will have 69 and 60 seats, respectively, and has the Mangalore University syllabus.
Rajashekar Hebbar, principal of the college, added that since the order came in late, many students have got admitted to private colleges this academic year. The evening college was proposed during the 2021-22 state budget.
In the order, the department of collegiate education has also been sanctioned posts of teaching and non-teaching staff.
The evening college will get posts of a principal, seven teaching faculty, two non-teaching staff, besides three group ‘D’ staff.
It is estimated that its operational cost per annum will be around Rs 57 lakh.
The evening colleges are established under the Sandhya Shakti scheme at 11 city corporation limits that include Mangaluru, Dharwad, Belagavi, Ballari, Bengaluru, Davanagere, Tumakuru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi.