Higher Education : Enrolment spurts, funds slashed
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 25 2012: Despite healthy rise in the number of fresh enrolment in Government colleges this year, decline in budgetary provision stands to impede infrastructure development.

Moreover, the fact that not less than 10 Principal in-charge are set to retire in February next contrary to procedural delays in effecting appointment of regular Principals for Government colleges would be further aggravating the situation.

According to a highly placed source in the Directorate of Education (University & Higher Education) nearly 23,000 students have been registered at various colleges of the State for the current academic year with the figure said to be 3000 more than the previous record of 21,000 .

For a total of 28 colleges run by the Government functioning in the State, the budgetary allocation for the 2011-12 fiscal was fixed at Rs 18 crore while for the current fiscal the plan outlay was slashed to Rs 13 crore, disclosed the source while informing that the financial requirement for paying salary of the faculty members is about Rs 6 crore in a fiscal year.

It is said that there are over 1210 faculty members, including 431 part-time lecturers and 55 guest lecturers in these 28 Government colleges.

Out of these faculty members DM College of Science has the highest number with 112 lecturers, and DMC Arts, with 85 lecturers, ranking second.

Imphal College with 75 comes in at third while GP Women's College with five less comes in at fourth.

On acquiring Associate Professor status a faculty member draws Rs 85,000 to Rs 1 lakh in a month, maintained the source, who also informed that Rs 2000 additional perk is entitled for holding the post of regular Principal.

Even though these colleges face no problem related to appointment of regular Principal, the UGC guideline that came into effect in 1990 for regular Principal prescribed certain criteria which was relatively a new development in the State.

These criteria, said the source, became the chief factor for the dearth in regular Principals with the Government left with the only option for finding in-charge Principals to ensure there is no derailment in the college administration.

Explaining the Government's effort to fill-up the vacant posts of regular Principals, the source referred to Manipur Public Service Commission putting up advertisements in 2005 and 2006 for recruitment/appointment of regular Principals.

however, the official notice failed to yield the desired result consequently deterring the Government effort till date, conceded the source.

The problem of regular principal is unlikely to be resolved in the coming years as nearly 10 principal in-charges are nearing service superannuation next year.

Accepting that students consider in-charge principals as a degeneration for the college concerned and tend to blame the college administrator if the institution faces any problem, the source expressed some that the Government would be able to effectively tackle the issue at the earliest.

Besides professional colleges such as Hindi Teachers' Training College, DM College of Teacher Education and Law College also under the ambit of the Directorate of Education, the source conveyed that there are 12 aided colleges and 33 institutions of higher education in Manipur.

It is further informed that 90 percent funding is provided by the UGC, DONER and North Eastern Council for development/construction of college infrastructures while the remaining is from State Government's share.

With the meagre 10 percent funding from the State for non-administrative purposes the amount is insufficient to even meet expenditures related to scholarship, office maintenance or purchasing furniture, disclosed the source.

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