Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Government colleges, which have faced neglect for the past many years, and sidelined especially by the talented lot, have once again become first choice of students in the state—thanks to the Covid-19 crisis. In the past two years, the number of students taking admission to these colleges has grown by leaps and bounds. This is evident from the fact that the total student strength has crossed the 50,000 mark in eight government colleges of the city.
The government’s move of allowing government college principals to increase the number of seats has also played a major role in the increase in student strength.
That government colleges were seeing more admissions than private colleges was evident during the time of admissions, but what took many aback was the figure touching over 50,000.
This figure came to light when enrolment of students started due to examinations. It was learnt that close to 50,000 were enrolling from eight out of 11 colleges in the city with Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya.
According to information, around 12,000 students each are enrolling from Atal Behari Vajpayee Government Arts and Commerce College, Holkar Science College, around 10,500 students from Old GDC, over 5,500 students from Old GDC, 4,200 students from Rau College, more than 3,200 from New Science College, around 1,600 students from Law College and over 1,000 students from Sanskrit College.
‘Covid-19 prompt students to go in for govt colleges’
‘During the Covid-19 crisis, classes were mostly held online, which prompted students to take admission to government colleges instead of private ones. The students saw that it wasn’t worth paying the high fees in private colleges at the time of the Covid-19 crisis, so they turned to government colleges. Government colleges also increased their seats in large numbers to accommodate more and more students. As a result, now, the student strength in government colleges is very high’ — Dr Suresh Silawat, additional director, higher education, Indore division
‘Pressure on infrastructure’
‘The influx of students in government colleges has put pressure on their infrastructure. While the colleges have to run classes in two shifts due to a shortage of space in classrooms, the already poor student-teacher ratio has gone from bad to worse. It is now up to the government to appoint teaching staff in government colleges to improve the skewed student:teacher ratio’ — Ramesh Mangal, retired professor
