Of 64 government colleges of state, 24 sans librarians

Of total 64 government colleges of the state, there are 24, where libraries do not have librarians and stop-gap arrangements are done by the college authorities. Otherwise, there are 85 sanctioned posts of librarians in the government colleges of Punjab.

This information was sought by one of the alumni of SCD Government College, Brij Bhushan Goyal, from the Directorate of Higher Education. Though Goyal had filed an RTI about a month ago, asking the department to provide details about government colleges in state without principals, the reason for not appointing them where needed and residential premises of the principals in government colleges, number of librarians in government colleges of state, etc.

In a reply given to Goyal recently, the Superintendent Coordination Cell, Director Higher Education, said there were 24 government colleges in the state where there were no librarians. And in the absence of librarians, the affairs were managed by other staff, teachers, etc.

“On the one hand, the government wants to uplift the education system while on the other, there are institutes where there are no sufficient teachers, principals and librarians. How the education system will get a boost in such a scenario? A good librarian actually encourages students towards reading. But when there will be none to guide about available books, how can we witness any change,” Goyal asked.

A student, Taranpreet Kaur, said: “As a student, we read as per our best knowledge but a librarian can guide us in a better way in searching for right books,” she said.