Plus two commerce admission on at BJB Autonomous College in Bhubaneswar (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 30: Students who had applied for a seat in commerce at Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar (Junior) College, but failed to get one now have a second chance.

The state government has agreed to the college’s request of 64 additional seats for the commerce stream. This has taken the total number of sanctioned seats for commerce from 128 to 192 seats.

“We had written to the department of higher education for increase in the number of seats because of the growing demand,” said principal S.N. Mohanty.

“Admissions to the new seats will be conducted manually,” he said. While the last date for receiving applications will be August 31, admissions will be completed by September 31. The merit list will be out on September 1 and those selected will be informed through text messages.

While the addition of seats has brought cheer among students, it has added to the burden of work in the department of commerce.

Despite its popularity, the department of commerce continues to suffer from a dearth of teachers, insufficient infrastructure and lack of modern technology required for quality education.

Ratikanta Nanda, the lone teacher for the department of commerce for junior college, manages 256 students in both the sections. The situation will get worse as Nanda will retire in six months.

After his retirement, the college will be left with no regular teacher. The situation is no different at the BCom level, where two teachers are left to handle 800 students.

“We have 144 classes per week. This makes it 72 classes per teacher, eight classes per day. This is too much to cope with,” said reader Debendranath Mishra.

“We will be forced to compromise on quality,” he said. While the sanctioned strength of teachers at the premier college is six, there has been no recruitment in the last 21 years. The last recruitment was in 1990.

“Most often classes are suspended or taken together,” said Purvi, a student. To add to the woes are dirty and dingy classrooms with inadequate lighting.

“I was shocked to find that they don’t have an LCD,” said Roshan, a student. “The college is yet to have a smart class technology. Even schools these days are equipped with all modern technologies. It’s strange when you come from a technology friendly school and don’t find it here,” he said.