Students aghast as faculty crunch hits Kashmir colleges

Srinagar, Sep 11: Students enrolled in various government degree colleges across the Kashmir Valley have expressed growing frustration over the severe faculty shortage in the institutions, leaving the education in jeopardy.

The students complained to Greater Kashmir that the new academic session has commenced almost a month ago but the classes remain unofficially suspended due to the unavailability of teachers in majority of the colleges.

The students said besides the dearth of permanent faculty, the colleges have not completed the recruitment of contractual faculty for the institutions as well.

“Majority of the students have been suffering because we do not have teachers in colleges and the contractual staff is not appointed yet,” said a UG student from Sopore.

The students complained that they face these issues every semester which takes a heavy toll on their academics.

A top official said this year the colleges are facing acute faculty crunch as some of the permanent faculty members from colleges have been deputed to election duty in view of the upcoming assembly elections.

“The permanent faculty is deputed to the office of Returning Officers,” the official said, wishing not to be named.

Meanwhile the students said they are forced to stay home as the colleges have no faculty available. “Students have been attending college for a month now and we are sitting home because there is no staff,” the students said.

“Despite the start of the new session, we have not attended any classes because there is no faculty in place,” said a student from Sopore. “This issue has been ongoing every semester, and it severely impacts our academic progress.”

The students said the colleges are yet to finalise the recruitment of contractual teachers, further exacerbating the crisis.

Amid the non-availability of the permanent faculty in colleges, the Higher Education Department (HED) annually engages contractual faculty for the colleges to fill the gap. “But we have been left to fend for ourselves as neither do we have regular teachers, nor have they appointed the contractual faculty. This is affecting our education badly,” the students said.

As per routine, the HED receives around 14000 applications for hiring contractual faculty for the colleges out of which approximately 2500 candidates are hired by the department.

Some of the candidates without NET and PhD are hired as teaching assistants and paid Rs 25000 salary per month while those having NET and PhD are hired as academic arrangements and paid a monthly salary of Rs 28000.

“Some are engaged against the available vacancy while some candidates are hired against the pool fund of the college,” the official said.

Amid the complaints pouring from students across Valley, the authorities attribute the delay in completion of the hiring of contractual staff for colleges to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) imposed in Valley in view of the elections.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Director Colleges J&K Prof Sheikh Ajaz Bashir said, “The selection process has been done and the merit list has been issued as well. The selected candidates have been allotted their colleges as well.”

He said the joining orders are not issued due to imposition of MCC in J&K in view of assembly elections.

“But we have written to the Election Commission and are waiting for their nod to issue the joining orders. This is the only requirement to complete the process,” he said.