BHUBANESWAR: The Degree Science College on the campus of Anchalika Mahavidyalaya at Mahaling village of Kalahandi district - set up by Gobinda Sahu, prime accused in Mamita Meher murder - has been operating without the mandatory university affiliation for last six years. Reason: Its management did not bother seeking renewal after 2014-15.In the midst of a raging controversy, the college flags the unregulated state of affairs of education and precarious plight of innocent students.
Set up in 2012 to offer Plus III education in Science stream, it started with 128 students but its intake now stands at 320, the highest among all degree science colleges across Kalahandi. Yet the college has been admitting students, conducting classes and examinations without updating affiliation from Sambalpur University since 2015. It offers Honours in Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Physical and Biological Sciences.
As per college records, it has admitted 798 students - 243 in 1st year, 280 in 2nd and 275 in 3rd year. To teach the students, it only has 14 faculty members, way less than the UGC mandate of 1:40 teacher-student ratio. The faculty includes Principal Aswini Kumar Bag who is a lecturer in Odia.
In 2019, when the State government notified formation of Kalahandi University by upgrading Kalahandi (Autonomous) College, it decided to de-affiliate the colleges in Kalahandi and Nuapada districts and affiliate them to the new university in order to lessen the burden on Sambalpur University.
Accordingly, degree college at Mahaling was supposed to be brought under Kalahandi University. “The college has to be de-affiliated from Sambalpur University for it to come under Kalahandi University. I am told there are certain pending official procedures at Sambalpur varsity level and unless that is completed, we cannot grant affiliation,” Prof Sanjay Satpathy, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Kalahandi University said.
The necessary documents were submitted to Sambalpur University last month for renewal of affiliation.
Sambalpur University VC Sajiv Mittal, however, terms operation of the college as ‘illegal’ and says getting affiliation is responsibility of the college concerned which must renew it every year. The university does not follow up on the individual colleges and if affiliation is not updated, the college status is considered ‘withdrawn’.
“It (Degree Science College) had affiliation till 2014-15 academic year. After that, the authorities did not submit documents that provide information on faculty and infrastructure among other things. Only if a college submits its documents, we send an inspection team to the campus for verification but in this case, since there were no annual submissions for affiliation renewal, no team from the university has visited the campus since 2014-15”, he said.
The college submitted the documents on September 28 this year and requested for regularising affiliation for the previous years too. “But we cannot do that till we send a team to evaluate their infrastructure, teaching and education standard. Only after the college gets affiliation, it can be de-affiliated and brought under Kalahandi University”, he said. He too is baffled by the fact that college admitted students without an affiliation all these years.
College Principal Bag refused to comment on the issue but said that there are many unaided colleges in Odisha which function with an ‘affiliation-pending’ status. The college’s government recognition was valid till 2019. Plus III colleges in Western Odisha get temporary/permanent recognition from the government through the office of Regional Director of Education (RDE), Sambalpur. RDE, Sambalpur Parvati Guru informed that only 292 of 320 seats were provided recognition.
The list of discrepancies does not stop here. Affairs of Anchalika Mahavidyalaya, the higher secondary (HS) school, are equally dubious. Established in 2010 with only 128 students, the school today has 496 seats in Science stream - also the highest among all the HS schools in Kalahandi district. The seat strength was 432 last year and the intake was increased by 64 this year.
Director of Higher Secondary Education Bikash Mohapatra said monitoring quality of education in unaided colleges like Anchalika Mahavidyalaya is impossible. “We only focus on aided or government colleges but if allegations of violation of the Education Act are received against any HS school, we initiate inquiry. In this case, we haven’t received any”, he said.
The school has 14 teachers to teach Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Physical and Biological Sciences, Odia, English and IT. Allegations are that most of the teaching staff are under-qualified. Government mandates a candidate having MSc with 55 pc marks be appointed as a teacher in an HS school. Principal of Anchalika Mahavidyalaya Ranajit Sahu, relative of accused Gobinda, holds an MCA degree from a private institute, Sai Institute in Bhubaneswar.
Institution kept boys on campus, set up girls hostels outside
Both the Degree Science College and Anchalika Mahavidyalaya are located on the outskirts of Mahaling on a 10-acre campus which also houses four staff quarters, two boys hostels, canteen, gym, playground and a temple. Strangely, both the girls hostels of HS school and Plus III are located outside the campus. The management committee members reason that there is not enough space on the campus for girls’ hostels. Twelve lady faculty members also stay in the girls hostels and look after affairs of the facilities, said secretary of the school management committee Kiran Singh. “Since there is little space left for accommodating girl students, we decided to set up hostels for them in the village. We have now decided to appoint women wardens for both the hostels”, he said.