Bhubaneswar, March 21: The department of commerce at the premier Ramadevi college here is all set to face a huge crisis this April. With two out of three existing commerce readers retiring on March 31, students in all the 10 sections of the department will be left with only teacher.
Currently, there are 1,024 students in both first year and second year commerce. The head of the department, Dr Jagdev Sahoo and reader Dr Bimal Prasad Mohapatra will retire on March 31. Following this, Sugyani Manjari Jena, the only reader of the department, will be saddled with the responsibility of taking classes for all sections.
Students and teachers of the college fear that this will be next to impossible.
“Teachers are supposed to teach five papers for Plus Two first year, five papers for Plus Two second year and 18 papers for Plus Two final year. The workload requires at least eight teachers. However, the college has been managing with just three teachers since 2010. Before that, there were just two teachers in the department,” said Sahoo.
“Responsibilities of a teacher are not limited to only teaching. He or she has to undertake the evaluation, carry out invigilation during examinations, help students fill up forms, conduct seminars, evaluate projects and address the grievances of the students,” he said
“As of now, only 50 per cent of the classes are being conducted. Teachers cover only selected topics that are considered most important,” said student Prachi.
“Classes are generally suspended as there no teachers are available. The course is not completed and we are left to study the remaining portions ourselves,” said Lipika, another student. Students are deprived of their legitimate rights due to lack of teachers.
The college has provisions for inviting guest faculty members. But the Rs 3,000 sanctioned for the purpose is not insufficient to avail the services of any teacher. The principal of the college, Dr Srilekha Ray, has been informed of the ongoing crisis in the department and she in turn has been writing to the higher authorities.
