Though Sundargarh is an industry and mine rich district, providing high revenue to State exchequer, but the Government has not paid much attention to its
declining standard of higher education. Almost all colleges in the district are reeling under staff crunch.
It was in March last while replying to a question of Rourkela MlA Dilip Ray, Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahi had accepted the fact of lecturer shortage in all the Government colleges of Sundargarh and had assured of early steps to fill up the vacancies. Though more than nine months have elapsed, the vacancies have not been filled in.
The Government Autonomous College, Rourkela, is the oldest college of the steel city. But the students who have taken admission in the college are repenting now as teaching is hit due to staff shortage. As per the sources, in +3 streams, the required number of teaching staff members is 53, but the actual position as of now is 20. This is less than half of the required strength. Even many departments are running without a lecturer. Similarly in +2 streams, against a required manpower of 25, 20 staff members are in position.
The situation in Sushilavati Government Women’s College, Rourkela, is also the same. Here, against 42 staff positions in +3, only 26 are working. The condition in Rourkela College is more peculiar. Here in +3 streams the required strength is 16, but 10 positions are vacant. Similarly in Sundargarh Government College while the required strength in +3 level is 48, the actual position is 25, including seven ad-hoc
lecturers. The large scale vacancies of teachers speak volume about the standard of teaching in these colleges.
For a quick fix, the Minister has asked the colleges to manage classes by engaging guest faculties. But the remuneration paid to the guest faculties is less than a daily wager’s. Against such a backdrop, teachers are not interested to work on ad hoc basis.
According to the sources, for a 90-minute class (two periods of 45 minutes each), a faculty is paid Rs 400 in +3 streams and in +2, the remuneration is a paltry Rs 300. That is why repeated advertisements for guest faculty have not elicited response from the candidates.
Besides, the situation of Rourkela College is more worrisome. It was initially an evening college with only Arts and Commerce streams in both +2 and +3 level. But due to management problem in NAC College with +2 Science and Arts, in Sector-7, the Government merged the college with Rourkela College in October 2014. However, the Government has not made any arrangement for providing science faculty to the college. Without a single lecturer and laboratory assistant and other staff members, it is definitely a hard task to teach the science students. From the very beginning, the science classes were managed with guest faculties who are also taking care of laboratory jobs. Secondly, as NAC College building is 3 km away, it is also creating administrative problem.