Samastipur
: Dozens of constituent colleges under
Lalit Narayan Mithila University
(
LNMU
) is facing severe faculty shortage. Colleges where as many as 5,000 to 6000 students are enrolled are left with with one or two teachers in each department.
The worst victims are the students of postgraduate departments of Samastipur College, Samastipur. Even the fate of honours and intermediate students are in a limbo due to shortage of teachers. The Urdu department of the college is running without a single faculty.
"Ek hi teacher ke jimme sabhi class tha aur July 31 ko wo bhi retire kar gaye. Ab koi padhanewala nahin hai (There was only one teacher in the department. He has also retired on July 31) ," said the students of Urdu honours.Established in 1947, the Samastipur College imparts education upto postgraduate level in 11subjects of science and arts. Now only 24 teachers are left to teach postgraduate, undergraduate and intermediate students where subjects like physics, Hindi, history, political science and economics are taught. Each subject has only one teacher whereas subjects like maths, English and psychology have two teachers each.
At RB College, Dalsingsarai, students are enrolled in history, political science, psychology and economics honours. College principal AM Jha said, "There is acute shortage of teachers. Each subject has only one teacher and we desperately need more teaching hands." The college has 5,000 students.
The lone constituent college for women here- Women's College--is also facing faculty shortage. Bandana Kumari, a woman activist said, "The government's so-called sympathy for women is a facade. It is obvious that no one cares for their education."
The
NAAC
team which visited Samastipur colleges recently also expressed surprise over the prevailing number of teachers.
Samastipur College Teachers' Association secretary Prabhat Kumar demanded immediate appointment of teachers. "If the process of appointment is not initiated soon, the academic atmosphere on the campus will further deteriorate," he said.
District president of the association, SN Tiwary, and vice-president of Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) Prof Dasrath Tiwary echoed similar thoughts.