Some students are upbeat over the Patna University’s decision to double the seats in all its colleges from the next academic session. But the faculty members are wondering as to how to cope with the increased strength of students with the limited resources and infrastructure. The Telegraph went around the colleges in the town to check out their infrastructure. The report card:
Patna Science College
Strength last year -300
Revised strength-600
Present tense-Abhay Prakash, a first year mathematics student, said: “The student-teachers ratio is less. We don’t have adequate number of teachers”
The teaser-R. Pandey, a mathematics teacher at Patna Science College, said: “The college is suffering because of poor teachers’ strength in the past few years. The sanctioned strength of teachers in mathematics is nine but we are working with just four teachers as no appointment has taken place in the past one decade.”
Patna College
Strength last year: 400
Revised strength: 600
Present tense-Tanveer Ahmad, a student currently pursuing PhD, said: “In Patna College, we used to have three to four classes daily. With more students in the college, there will be just one or two classes.”
The teaser-Randhir Kumar Singh, a senior teacher of Patna College, said: “With the increase in seats, the teachers will be burdened. The 33 teachers in the college teach around 2,000 students.”
BN College
Strength last year - Science: 156 Humanities: 400
Revised strength- Science: 350 Humanities: 600
Present tense
Sudhir Sharma, a final year philosophy honours student of BN College, said: “There is only on teacher in the history department for teaching around 60 students. Now, the same teacher will have to teach around 100 students.”
The teaser
M.N. Sinha, a geology department teacher of BN College, said: “The decision to increase the seats has been taken in haste without seeking the teachers’ opinion. Apart from teaching large number of students, conducting practical classes would be difficult. Earlier, we used to conduct practical in groups of 16 students. Now, the strength of each group would double. The lack of equipment and lab technicians in the college would add to the problem.”
Magadh Mahila College
Strength last year - Science: 128,Humanities: 30,Commerce (self-financed): 200
Revised strength -Science: 256,Humanities: 460,Commerce: 250
Present tense
Uma, a final year student of postgraduate diploma in sociology, said: “The College is not so big as compared to others of Patna University. With more students, there would be space crunch for conducting practical and other classes.”
The teaser
Dolly Sinha, the principal of Magadh Mahila College said: “The teachers’ scarcity is prevalent in all colleges of Patna University. But we hire retired teachers and research students for taking classes. So, the increase in seats will not create problems.”
Patna Women’s College
Strength last year - Science: 64,Humanities: 300,Revised strength
Science: 250,Humanities: 600
Present tense
Hema, who applied for taking admission in PWC, said: “My Intermediate science percentage was 78 per cent but my name did not figure in the first list. With the increase in seats, my chances have brightened as the number of seats has almost doubled in the science stream.”
The teaser
Stuti Prasad a English teacher at Patna Women’s College, said: “The decision of the state human resource development department to increase the seats is a welcome move but at the same time the state government should appoint teachers in universities as apart from quantitative approach the quality of studies in higher education should also be given importance.”
