Staff crunch mars studies in Government Autonomous College

Rourkela: Crunch of teaching staff in the Government Autonomous College (GAC), Rourkela reflects a sorry state of affairs in its academic ambience. Various posts in several departments are lying vacant, hampering study in the premier college, which is most sought after by the students in Sundargarh district.

“With vacancies yet to be filled up, we are often forced to drop the classes which have been the main cause of student unrest. With government yet to appoint a regular principal, many senior lecturers are keener to adopting private tuitions than taking classes,” revealed a staff on the condition of anonymity.

Prof. S Dang, Principal of the GAC, informed that the State Government has been apprised of this matter time and again, but no step has been taken yet.

A reader of the college, wanting not to be named, said the state government has not taken steps to fill up the vacancies despite repeated reminders. Even though matter has been taken up with local MLA Sarada Nayak, little precious has been done in this regard, he alleged.

Located on a sprawling 50 acres of land with an imposing building at Panposh, the GAC affiliated to the Sambalpur University, celebrated its Golden Jubilee this year.

The institution, initially named as Government Science College, made a humble beginning in the 60s with a small building in the township area. In 2002, it was accorded autonomous status.

The principal says as many as 31 posts of the teaching staff are lying vacant against a total 52 sanctioned posts in Degree level. The vacancies in the +2 (Junior level) is seven against the sanctioned posts of 25.

Major vacancies are in the departments of science stream. One teacher manages Physics department which actually requires five. Similarly, in the Chemistry department, four posts are vacant while only two teachers manage it. In Zoology and Botany, seven posts need to be filled up. Mathematics department needs one more teacher against three sanctioned posts. Surprisingly, the Sociology and Computer Science Departments are running without teachers, sources revealed. Besides, the college has no regular principal for more than a decade.

The students’ strength in +2 Arts is 164 per year, 128 in +2 Commerce and 320 in +2 Science. Similarly, there are 160 students in each year in +3 Arts and 176 in +3 Science. There are 16 each in English, Odia and Botany at PG levels.

With a poor teacher-student ratio prevailing in the institute, several denizens of the city demanded that the Higher Education Minister take necessary steps in this regard.