BHUBANESWAR: At a time when stress is being laid on skilling of youth and encouraging them to opt for technical education, government engineering colleges, industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics in the state are struggling with acute shortage of faculty and infrastructure including availability of modern tools in labs.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its audit has raised serious concerns on the quality of education in the skill development and technical education (SDTE) sector in the state. In its draft report, the CAG has pointed out that no faculty posting was made in government engineering colleges and institutions including BPUT Rourkela, Government College of Engineering (GCE) Kalahandi, GCE Keonjhar, IGIT Sarang and PMEC Berhampur from 2019 till January 2025, resulting in an overall vacancy of 47 per cent of the sanctioned strength.
The shortage was most acute in the cadre of professors with 73 per cent vacancies followed by 62 per cent and 38 per cent vacancies for associate professors and assistant professors, respectively. The staff crunch pushed the teacher-student ratio of these institutes to a range of 1:28 to 1:81 against the AICTE norms of 1:20 for undergraduate (UG) courses. The draft report also underlined that 185 out of 291 sanctioned non-teaching posts were vacant in these engineering institutions.
Meanwhile, government ITIs and polytechnics faced even more severe faculty crunch and shortage of instructors as only 864 i.e 49 per cent instructors were available against the sanctioned strength of 1,753 across all government ITIs.
The CAG audit, as per the draft, has also found serious infrastructure gaps in government-run technical institutions. The mining and civil engineering departments of GCE Keonjhar was found having only five and four laboratories against the requirement of nine and 10 such facilities respectively. Despite such deficiency, the institute failed to utilise Rs 3.41 crore of the Rs 4 crore granted in 2020-21 for development of labs.
The civil and production department in IGIT, Sarang was also found to have four labs against the requirement of eight, while two of the eight departments in PMEC, Berhampur languished with shortage of lab facilities as the college failed to utilise Rs 7.97 crore out of Rs 9 crore released for the purpose in 2017.
On the other hand, the draft report stated that modern tools and machinery were not available for technical students in multiple ITIs and polytechnics during the audit period. The CAG found that the IT branch of JES Sundargarh required 69 tools and equipment but the shortage was 100 per cent.
Similarly, the ETC branch of UGIE Rourkela also faced 100 per cent shortage of tools and equipment. The mechanical branch of Bose Cuttack also faced equipment shortage of 89 per cent, while the biotechnology branch of UCPES Berhampur faced 87 per cent shortage of equipment. “Overall shortage of tools and machinery negatively impacts students’ performance, hands-on practical experience and employability skills,” the report stated.
The audit also noted low student enrolment across eight departments of the engineering colleges during 2019-24 period. A significant number of seats remained vacant in UG courses. The average vacancy at GCE Kalahandi in mechanical engineering, civil engineering and electrical engineering stood at 86 per cent, 67 per cent and 63 per cent respectively, while mineral engineering in GCE Keonjhar recorded an average 88 per cent vacancy during this period. PMEC, Berhampur too, reported 90 pc vacancy in metallurgical and materials engineering.
The SDTE department has now sought compliance report from the institutes concerned for submission of the same to the auditing body.
IN DIRE STRAITS
No faculty posting was made in govt engineering colleges including BPUT Rkl, GCE Kalahandi from 2019 till January 2025
Professor posts saw most number of vacancies at 73%
For non-teaching staff posts, the report found 185/291 positions vacant
Mining and civil engg depts of GCE Keonjhar had 5 and 4 labs against requirement of 9 and 10 respectively
ETC branch of UGIE Rourkela faced 100% shortage of tools and equipment
Low student enrollment was reported across 8 depts of the engineering colleges during the period