Fill vacancies to sustain colleges: Educators to state government

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 23

Following an outcry over its proposal to transform eight leading government colleges into autonomous organisations, the state government has rolled back the decision for the time being. Though the move is being appreciated by the educationists, they are demanding that teaching and non-teaching positions be filled as soon as possible in order to sustain these important institutions.

Jaipal Singh, former president of the Government College Teachers’ Association (GCTA), told The Tribune, “Authorities failed to give these colleges the attention they needed, and as a result, they are suffering today, and so are the students. There are around 2,300 unfilled teaching positions in various colleges, with just about 155 permanent teachers. If we want to give the best to the younger generation, we must supply the best permanent subject teachers. Our demand is for the government to employ regular teachers in these institutes.”

There is also a significant scarcity of junior and senior lab assistants in colleges. Educationists think there is a staff shortage of approximately 90 per cent.

MS Salh, another prominent educator from Patiala, said that making these colleges autonomous was out of the question. This would take higher education out of the hands of the underprivileged, which was never the goal of these institutions when they were founded, he added. The state government’s decision to transform the institutions aroused strong opposition from veteran educators, teachers, students, and staff. They had planned to protest the move on August 27.