Admission crisis looms large over students, colleges

His may be an exceptional case, but what troubled him was real and felt by many across the state.

Of the 3.39 lakh students who took the Class X examinations, 2.94 lakh students passed the test; among these, 92,250 students bagged first division, whereas 1.50 lakh and 52,274 students got second and third divisions respectively.

However, the number of seats available in the 301 undergraduate colleges of the state’s three universities — Ranchi, Sidhu Kanu, Vinoba Bhave — was less than 2.50 lakh. With the cut-off mark set at 56 per cent in colleges, more than 44,000 students who secured 55 per cent or less could not get admission in any of the colleges. “We will be nowhere,” said Sohan Lal, a matriculate with 52 per cent marks, echoing the concerns of many like him.

What is troubling is that the state Government has neither a short-term nor a long-term plan to deal with the problem. The Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) dispatched letters to the colleges exhorting them to increase their seats and to hold evening classes for the students who could not secure seats in the institutions. “In case these colleges do not comply with our order, we will take legal action,” said JAC vice-chairman Abdul Subhan.

Teachers were red-faced over the directive from the JAC because institutions are considering hiring more staff for the current academic year. Since no additional money will be coming from the Government, the principals are trying to figure out ways to comply with the JAC’s directive as well as satisfy the existing faculty.

“No member of the staff is willing to work for an hourly wage at night, particularly because there’s no electricity during that time,” a college principal complained. “But the problem is that there is too much pressure from the students.”

The management of Ranchi College has decided to hire ad hoc teachers. Many are skeptical of the viability of the arrangement. “The money spent on employing teachers on hourly wages is set to run into lakhs annually. With no budgetary provision for this, we may not be able to cope with it,” said a Ranchi teacher on condition of anonymity.

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