Teacher shortage, other problems hamper study

Academic activities at Comilla Government College are being hampered seriously due to manifold problems, including crisis of teachers and lack of residential and transport facilities.
Inadequacy of infrastructures and other logistics also adds to the situation at the institution that has been providing education to several thousand students.
Coming into existence in the city’s police line area in 1968 as an intermediate college, Comilla College was later nationalised in 1985.
Though the government-run institution started functioning with Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) classes, Degree (Pass course) and honours courses in four subjects were later opened there in phases.
The four honours subjects studied here are Accounting, Management, English and Political Science.
Around 7,000 students are now enrolled at the HSC, Honours and Degree levels of the college but its existing teaching staff are far less than the minimum need.
As a result, providing lessons to the students in the above-mentioned subjects in most cases become quite difficult.
Despite Honours courses being run here for long, there has not been created any post of vice-principal at the college so far.
There is no teacher of professor post at the college though there are supposed to be four such teachers as per Enam Committee’s recommendation.
Only two posts of associate professors have been filled up out of the seven sanctioned posts.
One of the 12 posts of assistant professors is vacant while 14 posts of lecturer remain unfilled.
Only one lecturer is taking all classes of English, a compulsory subject in the curricula, at HSC, Honours and Degree levels.
The college has two three-storey buildings, one two-storey building and two tin-roofed structures where all the academic and administrative activities take place.
But the classrooms in the academic buildings are not enough for the existing number of students.
Though ICT course has been introduced as compulsory at the HSC level from the current academic year, no teacher for this has been made available till date.
Honours courses are being run predominantly with guest lecturers.
There is also not adequate number of employees.
Two posts of office assistants out of three and five of class IV employees out of 10 are lying vacant.
Talking to the UNB, some HSC students recently said they cannot prepare their lessons often in time for the scarcity of books and lack of space in the library.
The students alleged they have to reside in rented houses or messes outside the campus at high cost and to use public transport for going to and from the college as the institution offers no residential and transport facilities.
In addition to that, the teachers and employees have no campus quarters.
The house allotted for the principal was declared abandoned several years ago.
Contacted, principal Prof Ziauddin Ahmed of the college, said they have already wrote to the higher authorities to establish examination hall-cum-academic building, create new posts in different departments, reconstruct the roof of the old administrative building, set up central library and to take steps to resolve other problems.
He hoped that the authorities will take the measures without any delay.