BHAWANIPATNA: The Government Women’s College in Bhawanipatna has a Science block but no Science stream. At a time when State Government is focusing on promoting science education among girls, the college has been waiting to open Science stream for the last decade. The college already has a full-fledged Science Block which has remained unused as the approval for running Science stream from the Higher Education department is not forthcoming.
The Government Women’s College in Bhawanipatna was established in 1981 with Plus Two and Plus Three in Arts stream. Presently, it has 128 students in Plus Two and 64 in Plus Three with three honours subjects of History, Political Science and Education.
In 2009, the Higher Education department decided to open the Science stream in Plus Two level and the principal was intimated about it on October 16 the same year. Funds were placed with the college principal by the department for construction of Science block on the college premises. Construction of the block was completed by the Roads & Buildings Department in 2014.
The same year, equipment for Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology and IT laboratories in the new block were procured at the cost of Rs 15 lakh. The Science stream required the creation of lecturer posts in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Statistics, Botany, Zoology and IT subjects and 10 non-teaching staffs. But after all the formalities were over, the Higher Education department did not give permission to recruit new faculty members nor official permission to start the stream. The equipment is now gathering dust in the storeroom of the Science block.
The college administration has been writing to the department time and again, the last being on February 2 this year, but there has been no response. On February 16 while attending the Mission Shakti convention here, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced to open Science stream in the college but admissions to the current academic session in Plus Two is already over and it has not been opened.
The principal of the college, Trilochan Jena said he has again written to the department to open Science stream in both Plus Two and Plus Three in the college.