Helmed by National Award winner, new documentary spotlights crisis in Punjab's higher education
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The film notes how parent-teacher funds, once Rs 150 a year, have climbed to Rs 2,300 in some colleges, and many courses have been pushed into the self-financed category, hiking costs sharply. Fees for some postgraduate courses have jumped from Rs 9,500 to Rs 23,000. Scholarships, which were meant to get books or other resources, are now only to pay fees as the fee for self-financed courses is up to or even more than Rs 40,000 per year.
Under such a scenario, students from modest backgrounds are hit the hardest, say Rajeev Kumar. The documentary revealed that there are over 60 govt colleges in Punjab where the sanctioned strength of regular teachers was nearly 2,400. This was reduced to 1,900 in 2009. At present, only 350 posts of regular teachers have been filled, and there are nearly 700 guest faculty. After the Supreme Court quashed the recruitment of 1,158 assistant professor category, the teacher strength has only gotten worse.
The documentary also goes into the history of higher education in Punjab, as the state's first govt college was opened at Lahore in undivided Punjab on Jan 1, 1864. It was followed by Govt Mahindra College in Patiala in 1875, Govt College Ludhiana in 1920, Govt College Hoshiarpur in 1927, Govt Rajindra College Bathinda in 1930, Govt Ranbir College Sangrur in 1939, and Brijindra College Faridkot in 1942.
Punjab higher education minister Harjot Singh Bains, when contacted, said the state of higher education was not as bad as was being painted in the documentary.
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"The strength of students in govt colleges has considerably gone up, especially in humanities and BCom, which are in big demand. We have started 50 new-age courses, and the scholarships have been on time for the last 3 years. Now almost all colleges will have principals, as many colleges have NAAC A++ ranking.
We are giving stress on entrepreneurship and research. Despite this, a lot is still to be done," he said.
Bains said they had approached lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi to represent the state in the Supreme Court to plead against the quashing of the 1158 assistant professor case through a revision petition. As the Supreme Court has stated that higher education could not be left on the shoulders of guest faculty, and if 1158 professors are removed, Punjab will be left with only 200 regular professors, and new recruitment may take many months to complete, and till then, the students will be the worst sufferers.
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