Several colleges are reeling from infrastructure crisis and staff shortage and the Khallikote Autonomous College, one of the premier colleges of the State, is no exception.
It has been functioning without the required number of permanent teaching staff for the last several years. Even as this has been reflecting on education, the Higher Education Department is yet to take corrective measures.
The college having a student strength of 4,000 at present needs at least 90 teachers. But it has just
30 teachers now. There are 17 departments in the college. Although college principal G C Mohanty had apprised the Higher Education Department of the requirement several times in the
past, there has been so response. As a stop-gap arrangement, the college has engaged just three guest lecturers. Worried, the students too have been resorting to dharnas over the issue.
As per the college records, while there are no teachers for Hindi and Telugu departments, Political Science, History and Zoology manage with one teacher each for under-graduate, post-graduate and M Phil courses. Departments of Education, Anthropology and Statistics also manage with one teacher each.
In other departments like Chemistry, Botany, English and Odia, there are two teachers each.
The Khallikote Autonomous College is one of the oldest educational institutions of the country. College sources said it was started as a school in 1856 in Berhampur and became an Intermediate College in 1878.
Apart from the regular courses, the college offers self-financing courses in MSc in Biotechnology, Computer Science, Master in Computer Applications, PG Diploma in Biotechnology, Information Technology, Bachelor in Computer Applications, among other subjects.