Calcutta, Aug. 26: About a hundred under-graduate colleges in the state are without principals for the past few years.
In the absence of full-time principals, these colleges are being run either by lecturers-in- charge or heads of departments.
The West Bengal College Service Commission has issued a newspaper advertisement to recruit principals in 84 under-graduate colleges affiliated to various universities.
Twenty-nine colleges under Calcutta University, 16 under Burdwan University and 11 under Kalyani University are now without full-time principals. The number of such colleges in north Bengal is 19. Nine colleges in the two Midnapores, affiliated to Vidyasagar University, do not have principals.
Commission chairman Ajit Banik said the it was finding it difficult to fill up the vacant posts as the University Grants Commission (UGC) began insisting from last year that the college heads be PhDs.
“The last time we put up an advertisement to fill up about 100 posts of principals, only 40 candidates with PhD degrees applied. This time, we are trying to fill up 84 vacant posts, but we don’t know how many candidates we will get,” said Banik.
Sources said many eligible candidates are not willing to become college principals. Running a college is now more of an administrative job with financial responsibilities overriding academic concern. Moreover, having to tackle student politics is not to everyone’s liking.
Bikash Majumdar, an executive member of the All Bengal Principals’ Council, said he was aware of lack of candidates for the job. “It is true that we are not getting enough qualified candidates. This is a reason why the posts of principal in many colleges are vacant.”
Officials said about 90 schools are also minus headmasters. The West Bengal School Service Commission has initiated a move similar to the college commission’s to fill up vacancies.
The CPM’s student wing, Students’ Federation of India (SFI), tried to pile pressure on the government over the absence of heads in schools and colleges. “Academic activities are being hit by the long absence of principals,” secretary Sudip Sengupta said.
