Patna, Aug. 17: Once known as the Oxford of the East, the Patna University (PU) is now finding it tough to live up to its reputation.

The university, which is one of the oldest in the country, is facing a severe employee shortage. Lack of teachers has forced faculty of one department to take classes of another. Professor of the post-graduate history department, Amar Singh, said: “Lack of teachers and quality of education could be judged from the fact that statistics is being taught by a geography teacher, that too from another college.”

In 1980s, the student-teacher ratio was 15:1. Now, it has plunged down to 58:1. General secretary of Patna University Teachers’ Association (Puta), Randhir Kumar Singh said: “There are only 400 teachers for nearly 23,000 students. No new teacher has been recruited since 2003, however, a number of vocational courses have been introduced.” In the commerce department, only four teachers have to manage not only the regular courses but also two professional courses.

“The Sanskrit and Arabic departments have one teacher each. M.S. Qazmi, head of the department (HoD) of Arabic, said: “Some departments do not even have a single regular teacher and are completely dependent on visiting faculty.”

Sudhakar Singh, a member of the syndicate of Patna University, said: “At least six departments, including Pali and Buddhism, have become defunct. The visiting faculty consists of retired professors but the remuneration (Rs 250 per class) is too meagre to attract experts.”

He said till a year back, the vice-chancellor was empowered to make appointments on ad-hoc basis. However, the state HRD withdrew the powers.

PU registrar, Manoj Kumar, said there is no doubt that the university is facing teacher shortage.

However, this shortage is because of the moratorium imposed by the government and as soon as it is revoked further appointments will be done to overcome the present crisis. He said, he expected this to happen soon.