Students suffer as state's PU colleges see staff crunch

There seems to be no end to woes of Pre-University students. After being deprived of textbooks, they are now grappling with an acute shortage of teachers. Even if the textbooks arrive, there are hardly any teachers to teach them.

According to information from the PU Department, there is a 26.5% shortage of teachers. The state has over 1,232 government PU colleges with a sanctioned posts of over 12,856 teachers. Of these, 3,407 posts have remained vacant since the state government hasn’t hired lecturers for over four years.

In 2015, the state government had entrusted the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) to conduct an entrance test and provide a merit list of candidates. The KEA has not announced the final list till date though it had conducted the entrance test a few years ago. The delay in filling vacancies forced teachers to bear the workload.

“We have been asked to take 10 classes at our college and 10 more at a college which is short of teachers,” said a teacher at a government PU college in Hassan. Thimmaiah Purle president of Karnataka Pre University College Teachers Association said, “This is difficult for teachers to manage as they have to travel around 50 to 60 km.”

Which subject?

English and Commerce are the two major hit subjects with no guest faculty too available.

Worst in CM’s home town

According to data, Hassan district which is the home town of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has the highest number of vacancies with 184. Raichur with 181 and Dakshina Kannada with 178 vacancies follow closely.

The fewest vacancies are in Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru South and Kodagu districts with 37, 46 and 47 respectively.