Vinoba Bhave University

Dhanbad, July 4: The mass transfer of teachers carried out by Vinoba Bhave University has come as a bolt from the blue for a number of colleges that have been grappling with an acute mentor crunch.

While the June-end transfers have come as a boon for institution like PK Roy Memorial College others like SSNLT Women’s College, RS More College and Jharia-based RSP College have been on the receiving end.

RS More College, Govindpur, which had one teacher in its zoology department, stands to lose the most with the lone teacher, S.K. Sinha, transferred to PK Roy Memorial, leaving the department on the brink of closure. The Hindi and Urdu departments too are reeling under a mentor crunch, with the college functioning with a mere 18 teachers for over 8,000 students.

Expressing anguish over the recent transfers, principal of RS More College G.C. Jha said though the varsity had transferred Sinha, leaving around 800 zoology students of the college in the lurch, they had refused to name a replacement, despite repeated reminders.

“The principals of colleges should be given powers to appoint part-time lecturers. That is the only way we can deal with the mentor crisis,” said Jha.

He added that the onus was now on the state in appointing teachers to fill up the vacant posts as soon as possible.

Principal of PK Roy Memorial College S.K. Sharma, however, was happy with the institution set to get nine teachers due to the transfers.

“The transfers will help us in improving the situation in some departments. But we need more teachers for our geography department, which has only one ad hoc teacher who takes classes only four days a week,” Sharma said.