Why students do not prefer government colleges in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, October 13

The Chhattisgarh government, which claims to have achieved better growth rate than any other state in country in last one decade, surprisingly failed to bring radical changes in higher education sector as none of the state-run colleges could gain reputation of ideal academic destination among students.

Of course, the state has Centrally-funded National Institute of Technology (NIT), Indian institute of Management (IIM) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to boast about, however, it is expected to develop its higher education infrastructure according to UGC norms to check braindrain.

Presently, there are 181 government colleges (non-technical) in state, but none has requisite infrastructure and regular teaching faculty.

The studies in these institutes completely depend upon contract and guest lecturers. According to information, despite appointment of 581 assistant lecturers on contractual basis, about 1559 posts of assistant lecturers are still vacant. Consequently, majority of departments in these colleges are being run by two or three teachers who are certainly not experts in every subject. Many colleges do not even have regular principals.

The condition of government engineering colleges is equally worse. There are three government engineering colleges in state where none of the 21 posts of professors has been filled by far. Similarly, against 107 posts of associate professors and 41 posts of assistant lecturers, only five and 21 posts have been filled respectively.

The students say they do not prefer government colleges because they could not just throw their future in hands of contract teachers who are least bothered about their studies and more interested in their income.

The talented students, who could not afford taking admission in private colleges due to weak financial condition, compromise with the given situation and either leave their studies in the middle or join some job-oriented technical courses. Though, some of them manage to convince their parents to sell their agricultural lands or small properties to pursue their higher education in urban areas.  However, some students do join government institutes, but merely to obtain a degree, not to enhance their academic skills.

An official from higher education department admits that the government needs to revamp education policy to create competent environment in its academic institutes. “We too want to develop our arts, commerce and science colleges into centres of excellence, but our endeavours never come to practical footing due to red-tapism and excessive political interference,” he added.

Perhaps, this is the reason why Indian universities fail to figure in world’s top-200 list as the education system in entire country needs revolutionary change. Nevertheless, it will always be a debate subject why the governments, as compared to private players, fail to develop world class academic institutes despite spending whopping funds annually in education sector.