Kartik Oraon College in Gumla Faces Critical Teacher Shortage Affecting 13,500 Students

Gumla: Kartik Oraon (KO) College, Gumla, is battling acute shortage of teachers. It has only 14 regular and 14 contract teachers against the required 52 regular teachers. Most of the departments here are being run by a single teacher, a senior faculty member said.The Commerce department is left with no teacher after college principal-cum-head of the department (HOD), Satish Kumar Gupta, retired this August end. “I retired on August 31. Now, the commerce department is teacherless,” Gupta said.The mathematics department is functioning without a teacher for long, too. A student, Seema Kumari said, “I took admission in mathematics department for honours course but no classes are being held.

I can’t afford to go out for education.”The head of the botany department, Prasanjit Mukherjee, said, “Affiliated to the Ranchi University, the KO College offers postgraduate (PG) courses in arts and commerce streams and undergraduate (UG) in science stream.It has a total of 13,500 students on roll. ”“The departments of botany, zoology, chemistry, political science, economics and history are run by a single faculty while the departments of English and geography have two and three faculty members, respectively,” he added.

“While the govt is making claims of quality education, it is focusing on opening colleges and not recruiting teachers, where needed,” said NK Keshri, retired head of department of chemistry, Ranchi University.Present principal (in-charge) Badri Nath Mishra, the head of the department of English, said, “Students are not learning what they are expected to due to the lack of teaching staff. A very limited number of teachers can’t take all the classes.

This state of affairs is continuing for several years.”“The state govt should recruit teachers as soon as possible keeping the urgency of the matter,” he added.Speaking to TOI, RU registrar Gurucharan Sahu said, “Keeping the requirements of teachers with various colleges, a ‘need-based’ recruitment progress was initiated and its process was in last stage. However, it was stopped at the govt level.”Lohardaga MP Sukhdev Bhagat while addressing the students and teachers at a programme organised recently, said, “I will take up the matter with the Chancellor cum Jharkhand governor.” On the occasion, he also inaugurated a reading hall, indoor sports centre, and a tribal and regional languages academy on the campus.