Even though thousands of seats across all faculties are vacant all over Maharashtra, including in professional courses like engineering and MBA, the state and university administration are refusing to learn any lessons. In their quest to earn more money, greedy politicians and equally rapacious academicians have asked universities to invite applications for new colleges and courses, driving another nail into the coffin of the education sector.
According to insiders at Nagpur University, it has received 284 applications for new colleges and courses till Tuesday, even though it is already buried under a mountain of 800 colleges. Also, there are no regular principals and lecturers in most colleges in the state, leave aside proper infrastructure and facilities. However, the government is still bent upon making money by commercialising the education sector.
Surprisingly, the government even went to the extent of instructing universities, via a fax, to keep their offices open even on October 31 (Sunday), which was the last date of submitting applications). Beyond that, universities were asked to accept applications from those who submit it the next day too.
This issue is among the biggest ills of the education system, where politicians controlling the government open colleges without following norms and exploit students by charging exorbitant donation and fees. TOI had reported earlier on October 26 how despite being overburdened, NU was keen to open new colleges in the next academic session (2011-12).
Minister for higher and technical education Rajesh Tope however defended the decision, saying that since Maharashtra's gross enrolment ratio (GER) was less as compared to other states, new colleges were needed. "While giving permission, we will strictly monitor that colleges follow the norms. We've kept very strict norms this year and will not allow colleges without necessary infrastructure, facilities and lecturers to start," he asserted.
Dharampeth commerce college student Swapnil Shivankar however blasted NU authorities and the government for playing with the future of students. "There are no principals or even lecturers to teach us. Regular periods are not held. Many seats are vacant and these colleges charge exorbitant fees from us to survive. Yet, they want to open new colleges without taking into consideration the teacher-student ratio. We're certainly facing a dark future," he said.
Interestingly, in the first 82 years of Nagpur University's history till 2005-06, there were just 400 colleges in NU. In the next five years, by 2009-10, a whopping 375 colleges have been added, taking the total to 775. This year, the figure crossed the all-time high mark of 800. Last year too there had been a whopping 381 proposals for new colleges, a majority of them from politicians or
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