Ahmedabad: With admissions to technical courses underway, half of Gujarat’s government-run engineering colleges are operating without full-time principals. Eight of the state’s 16 government engineering colleges do not have regular principals, while all three UG pharmacy colleges run by the state government are also without full-time principals, industry sources said.The leadership gaps come amid a surge in voluntary retirements. Over the past two-and-a-half years, around 50 senior faculty members and administrators across engineering, polytechnic and pharmacy institutions have taken voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), with more applications awaiting clearance, sources said. Recent cases include CB Bhatt, principal of the MCA college in Khokhra, and RA Thakkar, principal of GEC Rajkot.“Most of the times, personal reasons are cited for the step as some join private institutions as some settle abroad with their children,” said a source.Pankaj Prajapati, secretary of the Technical College Teachers’ Association, said many institutes are being run by interim heads. “In these institutions, the vacancy at all levels is about 15-17%, which increases to 50% at senior levels,” he said.Prajapati attributed the trend to dissatisfaction over career progression and work conditions. “When they have only a few years of active service left, these faculties choose to either switch over to private varsities for pay or retire with pension benefits,” he added, citing lack of regular promotions, frequent transfers and unequal workload.Officials in the state technical education department said LD College of Engineering in Ahmedabad saw nine faculty members and senior officials opt for VRS in the last year, while three more have applied and are awaiting a decision. They added that the principal of the Bhavnagar engineering college has had a VRS application pending for the past two years.“Government engineering colleges in Rajkot, Morbi, Bhuj, Dahod, Godhra, Bharuch, and Valsad are sans regular principals for several years now. Out of 135 sanctioned posts for professors, the state colleges have vacancy at 76 or 56%,” said a senior official.Vacancies are also significant across other teaching cadres. Out of 403 sanctioned associate professor posts, 26% are vacant, the official said. For assistant professors, vacancies stand at 25% against a sanctioned strength of 1,467.A principal of a technical college, speaking on condition of anonymity, said administrative hurdles and staffing shortages are pushing senior staff to exit. “There are huge expectations from the staff members, but not adequate human resources – thus the existing staff gets bogged down by the workload. Lack of regular assessment for promotions and use of transfers as punishment are also some reasons,” said the principal. “In some cases, the faculties and principals choose to stay home with pension benefits for religious reasons, social reasons or settling down out of the state.”Dilip Rana, in-charge commissioner (technical education) of the state government, said the department has not observed a large-scale trend. “There are instances of the faculties and principals leaving, but we have not seen any en masse movement. There are no files pending for the VRS with us,” he said.
