VIJAYAWADA: Even as politicos wax eloquent on strengthening the public education sector to bring it on a par with private institutions, over a third of the State’s government-run junior colleges do not have principals.
Of the 447 such colleges in the State, only around 280 colleges have principals, the rest are run by in-charge staff. Among the teaching staff, just 1,500 are regular lecturers, while over 3,700 junior lecturers are contract employees.
Several colleges have either just one regular faculty member, who is also entrusted with the additional responsibility of acting as a principal, or no regular faculty at all. The situation has been so for a long time, with no timely recruitments or promotions. It’s been over a month since the academic year began, even then, little has been done to see that classes go on smoothly.
Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) Commissioner B Udaya Lakshmi said, “As of now, there are in-charge principals. Due to the lack of cooperation between staff, a majority of the promotions are stopped or delayed.”
Not just principals, district board officials such as regional intermediate officers, district vocational educational officers and regional joint directors are under temporary charge.
Government junior college teaching staff went on a strike in April this year and boycotted Inter supplementary examination duties demanding immediate action. Though higher officials assured them of help before the beginning of the academic year, there has been no significant change in the state of affairs.
College managements are now worried about midday meals due to the severe shortage of administrative staff.
“The officials who assured us of better conditions have not kept their word. Instead of solving our existing problems, they are worsening the situation by forcing new initiatives such as midday meals, model colleges etc upon us. It is quite hard for us now. We don’t just take care of teaching, but also administration and scholarship work. We will go on an indefinite strike and boycott our duties if the government doesn’t solve our problems,” said general secretary of AP Government Junior Lecturers Association V Ravi.