Karnataka parties want to provide women with free education, but they are at a dilemma that will the government accept their demands; especially the question has been raised by colleges.
Women’s education has been in the priority list of almost all the parties. Also, the three major parties have discussed how they can promote free college education for women, but the most difficult question that arises here is, how will pay the high fees for this higher education program. It has been discussed in party meeting that most of the colleges in Karnataka, especially women’s colleges are under a high pressure as they are under a turmoil regarding the budget, given the fact that these colleges function under the guidance of guest lecturers.
The department for higher studies has a lot to say about the matter. A senior academician reportedly said that there is a college named Maharani College which is affiliated to Central University of Bangalore. This college is for women and women pay up to 1000 INR for the admission procedure and that for co- education colleges like the RC college of Commerce or famously known as the Government Science College men pay around 400 INR for admission and women 1000 INR for admission. This example was given to explain the general public that the registration fee for the admission is a must as it goes directly to the affiliated university. Now the question is who pays the funds for the following students who will enrol. If that is cut out, the left is tuition fees. But then again it is very important to maintain the tuition fees because it accounts for the infrastructural facilities, computer laboratories, and other science laboratories.
The college authorities and parties think that it would be a compromise on education if the problem here is that there is no permanent faculty. The most important question is the quality of education being compromised here at any cost. A university faculty reportedly said that there are 12000 guest lecturers in Karnataka who deal with all the workload and are paid 11000 INR and 13000 INR if they are in the college without a PhD and the one with PhD respectively. There are about 412 colleges under the government and there are only 28 principals who work full- time and in the colleges without a full time principal are being managed by teachers, according to their turns.
A government college official reported that in this providence, the science colleges will face the most of dilemma to provide quality education, given the issue of fund raising. Also, the funds are not enough because all the funds are invested in the betterment of laboratories and infrastructure of the college.