Lack of staff, facilities at Subathu college, students face bleak future

Lacking adequate staff and infrastructure, over 100 students studying in Government Degree College, Subathu, face a bleak future.

No permanent principal

• The college has three assistant professors catering to English, history and Hindi subjects, while three others pertaining to political science, commerce and economics have been deputed on a temporary basis from other colleges
• The college doesn’t even have a permanent principal, reflecting its poor state of affairs

Earlier, Goswami Ganesh Dutt Sanatam Dharam College, Subathu, was a private college. The state government took over the institution on October 14, 2022, days before the model code of conduct was announced for the Assembly elections. However, its notification was withdrawn in November 2023, after the Congress government took over and it was once again brought under the management of a private body. The state government re-notified its takeover in March this year, though it was yet to get the requisite staff strength and infrastructure. The case for creating the requisite staff strength is under consideration of the government since then.

The college has three assistant professors catering to English, history and Hindi subjects, while three other assistant professors pertaining to political science, commerce and economics have been deputed on a temporary basis from other colleges. The contractual employees have been appointed at a monthly salary of Rs 25,800. This is barely 60 per cent of the first cell of the of the applicable academic level-10 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) pay scale, as per a notification of their appointment issued in January 2024.

The college doesn’t even have a permanent principal, reflecting its poor state of affairs. Its charge is held on an additional basis by the principal from Government Degree College, Dharampur. This information was furnished by the Education Department to a question posed by Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri at a recent Vidhan Sabha session.

Sultanpuri consistently pleaded its case for being taken over by the state government once again. His efforts bore fruit in March when the state government re-notified its takeover.

The UGC had issued a notification on Jan 19, 2013, that mandates every higher education institution to undergo the accreditation process and seek National Assessment and Accreditation Council’s approval. A college with such inadequate staff was a mockery of the education system as it neither fulfilled the UGC stipulations nor could it seek accreditation with scant staff and bare minimum facilities.

The abject lack of teaching faculty has put a question mark on the ad hoc functioning of this college. With no choice to opt for other subjects and scant staff, the students face a bleak future.

The college caters to the rural populace of villages around Subathu, besides this cantonment town. This was the lone college in the Kasauli Assembly constituency for years, before a government degree college was opened at Dharampur.