Berhampur: Even as only three days are left for Khallikote Autonomous College to turn into a unitary university, acute shortage of teaching staff is likely to hit studies in the college, a report said.
Preparations are on the last leg as the college will become a unitary university from August 1. The matter came to the fore from an RTI query by advocate Pitabas Panda.
Panda is also a former secretary of the students’ union of Khallikote College. Panda alleged that professor posts are lying vacant in 11 out of 18 different departments in the college.
Similarly, several posts of readers and lecturers are also lying vacant in various departments. Out of the sanctioned posts of 77 lecturers, the college is managing with only 26 lecturers.
The vacancy of the teaching staff has seriously hit the classroom studies but hardly anyone is concerned about it, he said.
The college authorities in their reply have admitted that the posts of lecturers are lying vacant in Chemistry, Environmental Science, Zoology, Economics, Physiology, Education, Telugu and Hindi departments.
Moreover, several posts of non-teaching staff are also lying vacant. The vacancy has hit the day to day functioning of the college.
Notably, Khallikote Autonomous College is the oldest and the largest institute of higher education in southern Odisha.
Meanwhile, the state government has appointed the vice-chancellor for the university while the principal has been asked to take charge as the registrar of the university.
However, the newly turned university is struggling with acute staff crunch for long. The staff shortage is present in both teaching and non-teaching departments while the government has done little in addressing the problem.
In this situation, one wonders how the students of different departments will attend their classes which will start from August 1. The state government has ordered relaxation in Covid lockdown measures and allowed the higher education institutions to function.
PNN
