No principals in 400 govt colleges; teachers to protest

BENGALURU: For the past nine years, 400 out of 412 government degree colleges in the state have been functioning without permanent principals. The continuing apathy of the department of collegiate education in recruiting principals has prompted the Karnataka Government College Teachers’ Association to call for a statewide strike on March 11and 12.

The association believes the commissionerate of collegiate education is no longer academic-friendly and lack of permanent officials at the levels of commissioner, director, additional director and joint director of the department is adding to the woes of the teachers as requisitions have stagnated.


H Prakash, president of the association, told TOI that many of the temporary heads (principals) of the institutions aren’t willing to take concrete decisions and this is affecting functioning of the colleges.

“These colleges need principals. The department has been following an ageold model of direct recruitment. This decision was taken in 2009 and since then, they have not recruited a single principal for any of the colleges,” he said.

Of 17 colleges in Bengaluru, only five have permanent principals. S

Siddhalingaswamy

, state coordinator for accreditation of government colleges, said the situation is much worse in other districts.

“There is not a single principal for the 70-80 government colleges in

Kalaburagi

. In

Mangaluru

, there are more than 70 colleges but only one has a permanent principal. The same is the case of

Dharwad

, which has 90 colleges. It’s a leadership crisis. This is happening across the higher education department because none of the officials is permanent. The absence of a permanent principal won’t hinder the accreditation process of the college but one can’t expect the same zeal and authority from an in-charge principal like what a permanent one can exude,” he added.