Magadh’s missing girls’ colleges

Gaya: There are just three constituent colleges for girls in a 1 crore population of Magadh division of the state.Three of the five districts of the division do not have a single women’s college, said Congress leader Bali Ram Sharma and even the three women colleges located in the districts of Gaya, Nawada and Aurangabad suffer from faculty crunch.

Jehanabad and Arwal districts do not have any constituent or government women’s college.

Education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma said: “The concept of women-only colleges are changing. Now more and more girls are taking admission in co-educational institutions (colleges).” The state government in an attempt to increase the enrolment rate of women in higher education is running various schemes such as girl students getting Rs 25,000 for pursuing higher education after completion of undergraduate courses among others.

Though the minister sounded positive of girls taking up higher education courses, many people differed in their views.

According to Ram Prawesh, a farmer from Shakurabad village, his daughter has appeared at the Class XII exam of the Bihar School Senior Secondary Exam Board. There being no women’s college in the nearby township of Jehanabad, she would not be going to the college as cases of girls’ harassment have unnerved him and he would not send his daughter to a co-educational college.

” Izzat se bari koi cheez nahin hoti (there is nothing greater than honor). There is no government/constituent college exclusively for girls in Jehanabad and I cannot afford to send my daughter to Gaya or Patna for a college education,” said the farmer.

As per university records, nearly two-thirds of teaching positions at RM Women’s College, Nawada, are vacant. Against 24 sanctioned posts of teachers, there are only nine working teachers and some of them will soon reach the retirement age. The number of girls enrolled in the college is 4,376.

“Nine teachers for 4,376 students is simply unimaginable,” said RTI activist Brijnandan Pathak.

In GBM College, Gaya, things are only slightly better. As against an enrolment of 3,292 students in the college, the number of teachers is 20. In GBM College, nearly 65 per cent of the posts are vacant. There are 56 sanctioned posts of teachers in the college.

Kishori Sinha Mahila College is located in the district headquarters of Aurangabad. As compared to the other two colleges of the division, it has the highest enrolment. The number of students in the college, as per MU records is 5,904. Here too nearly 60 per cent of the posts are vacant. The number of sanctioned posts in the college is 68 and the number of working teachers is only 29.

Courtesy: The Telegraph