By The New Indian Express, India
One of the oldest in the State, Gangadhar Meher (GM) College is reeling under large-scale vacancies at a time when unitary university status is being sought for it.
One of the oldest in the State, Gangadhar Meher (GM) College is reeling under large-scale vacancies at a time when unitary university status is being sought for it.
It has 73 teacher posts lying vacant, out of a total of 119 .Although teachers have been transferred to other colleges, no effort has been made to find replacements or fill up the existing vacancies. Although there is a provision to appoint teachers on an ad hoc basis, the college authorities haven’t been able to do so due to funds shortage.
While departments of Zoology, Psychology, Sanskrit, Political Science, Hindi and Philosophy have just one teacher each who teaches both under graduate and post- graduate students, in departments of History, Odia and Mathematics there are just two teachers. Similarly, in the department of Physics there are only three teachers against the sanctioned 10 posts, while in the department of English, six posts of teacher are lying vacant against sanctioned 11. In Botany, five posts are vacant against the sanctioned seven. In Chemistry and Commerce, four posts each are lying vacant against eight sanctioned posts, while in Geography and Education, two posts each are lying vacant.
Although 36 teachers have been appointed on contractual basis, courses of studies are far from over even as students are gearing up to appear for their examinations.Interestingly, moved by the plight of the College, some retired teacher like Dilip Panda of the department of Economics, former Principal Sulok Sundar Mohanty, Prasanna Mishra of Physics and Anthony Nag of English are taking classes for free.
Principal in-charge of the College, Kamadev Sahu, said attention of the State Government has been drawn and teachers on contract have been appointed to manage things.Established in 1944 as Sambalpur College, the name of the institution was changed to Gangadhar Meher College in 1949. From a strength of 192 in 1944, the college is currently catering to the needs of about 4,500 students from across the region. Being a premier institution of the region, it was given autonomy in 1991.
