Opening a new chapter of better education base and facilities in the State, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday gave his nod to revamp the infrastructure in all the State’s Government Colleges at a cost of Rs 88 crore within two years.
Of this, Rs46 crore would be spent on strengthening and upgradation of infrastructure in these colleges during the current fiscal, and remaining Rs42 crore had been earmarked for the execution of alteration and additional civil works to be undertaken during the financial year 2014-15.
The decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister while presiding over a high-level meeting of Vice-Chancellors of the Universities, principals of the government colleges, and the senior officers of the higher education at Punjab Bhawan on Friday morning.
“Rs88 crore has been sanctioned keeping in view the fragile infrastructure and dilapidated buildings of Government Colleges over a period of time which needed immediate repair and upgradation to ensure congenial atmosphere for imparting quality education,” said Badal.
He has asked the Principal Secretary Higher Education to ensure that during the first phase, only repairs and renovation works should be undertaken and the construction work of additional rooms, boundary walls should be executed during the second phase.
To overcome an acute shortage of teaching staff in Government Colleges, Badal directed the Principal Secretary Higher Education to immediately initiate the process for recruitment of college teachers on regular basis against the vacant posts.
He categorically asked the officer to regularly fill these vacant posts of teaching faculty on permanent basis rather resorting to the prevalent practice of engaging college teachers on guest faculty and part-time basics.
Chief Minister reiterated that the main objective of the State Government was to develop all 46 Government Colleges in such a manner to equip them with latest infrastructure for providing quality education in rural areas on one hand, and providing level playing field to compete with their counterparts globally, on the other.
Badal has also asked the VCs to allow government colleges to run skill development and professional courses to enable the students to be gainfully employed.
He also impressed upon the principals to introduce self-financing schemes in colleges to generate additional revenue for making these educational institutions economically viable and financially sustainable.
Emphasizing need to establish proper coordination amongst varsities, higher education department and the government colleges, Badal asked to evolve a new system of bi-annual inspection and evaluation of Government Colleges.
This would be done by ‘Mentoring and Monitoring Teams’ comprising VCs, Secretary Higher Education and other senior officers to provide support and guidance in all aspects to the Government Colleges for the timely removal of bottlenecks, if any, in the way of their development.
Besides, it would help in bringing efficacy in their day-to-day functioning.
Badal further asked the VCs to appoint two guardian professors in each Government College to ensure its overall development and progress.