Poor student-teacher ratio ails Punjab govt colleges

A recent Supreme Court judgment quashing the regular recruitment of 1158 Assistant Professors and Librarians in Punjab’s government colleges, done during the tenure of Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress Government in 2021, has brought to fore the poor student-to-teacher ratio of 1:40 against the University Grants Commission (UGC) benchmark of 1:20.

53 per cent posts of principals vacant

Punjab Education Minister Harjot Bains said on the floor of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in February this year that nearly 53 per cent posts of principals in government colleges across Punjab are currently vacant.

Of the 64 government colleges, including four colleges of education offering BEd courses, 34 are functioning without a principal. Since then, 27 professors have been promoted as principals

Against 77,000 students in 64 government colleges, there are just 1,900 teachers. Not only teachers, many of the colleges do not have regular principals. Besides the shortage of teaching faculty, the apex court orders have highlighted the plight of many who have spent their life time in part-time teaching – waiting for a regular job.

Though the apex court has given interim relief to the state government, allowing 1158 Assistant Professors and Librarians to continue in government colleges till new recruitment wasn’t carried out, the “sword of Damocles or uncertainty” hangs over their heads.

Ironically, many of these assistant professors teaching part-time would be reaching their retirement age in the next two to three years — waiting for a regular job for the last over two decades. For some of the college teachers, the quashing of the appointment by the apex court was a double blow. An Assistant Professor at Government Rajindra College, Bathinda, Dr Parminderjit Kaur, twice got selected as a regular teaching faculty but the appointment process was quashed by courts —- first in 2002 due to the infamous Ravi Sidhu PPSC scam and now in 2025, due to the state government not following the UGC guidelines.

Otherwise, for the last quarter century, there has been no recruitment in government colleges. Officials in the Higher Education Department admit that the colleges are being run with the help of guest faculty and part-timers. Presently, there are 100 part-time teachers, 760 guest faculty and 143 regular teachers.

Highlighting the stark reality, officials say that the last comprehensive recruitment took place in 1996, when teachers from multiple batches were hired. In 2001, an additional 274 teaching posts were sanctioned, but the recruitment process got mired in controversy due to the PPSC scam. Consequently, only 28 appointments were made after about five years, and it wasn’t until 2002-07, during Captain Amarinder Singh’s government, that 60 English lecturers were recruited.

Sources in the department said the poor strength of students in some colleges, especially those in rural areas, was a cause of concern. Nine colleges have less than 100 students and at least in four of these, the student strength was below 20.