Friday, November 19, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Amphitheatre versus hostel: Ravenshaw varsity at crossroad
Prasanna Mishra
The Ravenshaw University is popular not only among the students from Odisha, but it draws students from other States as well. The demand for hostel among the outstation students is but natural. Most outstation boys and girls come from economically not so rich family, and therefore, prefer to stay in the hostels, which are far safer and less expensive.
In 1999-2000, when the students’ strength was about 5,700, there were about 2,300 seats available in different hostels. This worked out to accommodate a respectable 40 per cent of the outstation students.
Gradually, the students’ strength rose after various self-financing courses were introduced. Now, the total student strength is around 7,800. The strength of self-financing courses has increased from less than 100 in 1999-2000 to about 2,600 in 2010-11. Unfortunately, the number of hostel seats came down to only 1,870, which are only 23 per cent of the student strength.
This situation led to congestion in the hostels and forced many students to stay in unsatisfactory, unhygienic and even more expensive places away from the university. While congestion in women’s hostels was more visible; agony of students living in miserable conditions away from hostels tended to be played down on the specious assumption that boys can easily live in adverse environment.
Such an assumption, apart from being erroneous, tends to overlook the high cost of such stay. The problem got aggravated after the decision to convert the university West Hostel into Management Centre. The hostel was renovated at a great cost. More than fifty million rupees were spent. Even now, completion of kitchen block would require more money. Meanwhile, the strength of the hostel got reduced substantially. A hostel that accommodated 250 boys has been made swanky to accommodate 130 MBA students in two-seater rooms. The rooms now provide various amenities. In any case, the hostel is no longer available to the other students of the university. The hostel is now available for both boys and girls doing Management course. The first batch of MBA students, which passed out, had perhaps no satisfactory placement in job market. It is highly unlikely that they are financially well-off by adding value to family business or have made successful startup companies. The enthusiasm for MBA course the university is offering has waned, and this year, only around 15 of the 60 seats were filled up. Some people tend to say that this dwindling interest in Ravenshaw brand is due to economic meltdown. Our Prime Minister, however, has been telling us that India has survived the meltdown and the economy is healthy. The fact is that the West Hostel is mostly unoccupied.
Though the university now permits both girls and boys in the West Hostel, the authorities are eloquent in espousing the virtue of an exclusive corridor for girls on the campus to justify their desire to convert the East Hostel into a hostel for girls. The East Hostel has an expensive amphitheatre close by. So are many offices of the university almost adjacent to this hostel. In fact, the annexe of the East Hostel that used to accommodate around 60 students has been converted into various offices. Certainly, neither the amphitheatre nor the offices are being exclusively used by girls. The concept of the corridor, therefore, does not appear to be convincing.
The problem of overcrowding of girls in some hostels can be substantially eased by transferring girls from the overcrowded hostels to the West Hostel. Even if the East Hostel is available only for girls, the hostel cannot be made habitable for them unless toilets are ready and rooms are furnished. This may take months. Then, why is the West Hostel not being used?
The Management Centre, along with students, can be accommodated in the existing commodious quarters on the campus. A period of five years is long enough to have enabled a responsive administration to create at least three hostels on the campus. Fact is that not even one hostel has been constructed. Let us see what else were constructed or renovated. The university now has an amphitheatre.
It is likely that ten million rupees could have been spent on it. Was its need more important than a hostel? The historic hall of the university was renovated certainly not to provide classrooms. We could have deferred the costly project and utilised about ten million rupees on a hostel.
The university undertook a connectivity project on the campus spending a lot of money. The project has either been abandoned or lying incomplete. By deferring this project to better times, we could have spent the money on a hostel. Did we make the FM Radio station a success? We could have saved at least five million for the hostel. We could have negotiated with the service providers for the self-financing courses and enhanced the university’s share of income.
The decision to covert the West Hostel to the Management Centre in the context of prevailing acute shortage of hostel accommodation was certainly avoidable. More than fifty million rupees spent on renovation –still incomplete—could have been utilised for new hostels. Now, a word about the quality of instructors of self-financing courses would be relevant. The university has a respectable strength of students, around 2,600, studying in various self-financing disciplines. Who are the teachers? Do they have the same qualifications that apply to teachers of the university? Has the university any overriding arrangement with the service providers by which a person not adequately qualified can be prevented from teaching the students? Is the university bound to engage the same service providers till eternity? These are issues the Government should have a look at as it involves quality of education of thousands of boys and girls who are paying for the courses.
Some persons seem to have been appointed against positions/posts that do not exist. One such case relates to appointment as Director, Ravenshaw Knowledge Centre, on contract with a consolidated pay of Rs 65,000 per month. Who else in this State’s Government system has made such an appointment? In the State Government there are precedents when senior servants have been removed from service for having irregularly appointed class IV employees even while such posts existed. Here are cases where posts did not exist; persons are engaged and paid fancy salary. Don’t we swear by equality of treatment? All I am pleading for here is aimed towards upholding the majesty and dignity of my alma mater, a veritable Methuselah among premier educational institutions of the country, and a bright future of the young students.
--The writer, a former civil servant, can be reached at punarbashu@gmail.com
The Ravenshaw University is popular not only among the students from Odisha, but it draws students from other States as well. The demand for hostel among the outstation students is but natural. Most outstation boys and girls come from economically not so rich family, and therefore, prefer to stay in the hostels, which are far safer and less expensive.
In 1999-2000, when the students’ strength was about 5,700, there were about 2,300 seats available in different hostels. This worked out to accommodate a respectable 40 per cent of the outstation students.
Gradually, the students’ strength rose after various self-financing courses were introduced. Now, the total student strength is around 7,800. The strength of self-financing courses has increased from less than 100 in 1999-2000 to about 2,600 in 2010-11. Unfortunately, the number of hostel seats came down to only 1,870, which are only 23 per cent of the student strength.
This situation led to congestion in the hostels and forced many students to stay in unsatisfactory, unhygienic and even more expensive places away from the university. While congestion in women’s hostels was more visible; agony of students living in miserable conditions away from hostels tended to be played down on the specious assumption that boys can easily live in adverse environment.
Such an assumption, apart from being erroneous, tends to overlook the high cost of such stay. The problem got aggravated after the decision to convert the university West Hostel into Management Centre. The hostel was renovated at a great cost. More than fifty million rupees were spent. Even now, completion of kitchen block would require more money. Meanwhile, the strength of the hostel got reduced substantially. A hostel that accommodated 250 boys has been made swanky to accommodate 130 MBA students in two-seater rooms. The rooms now provide various amenities. In any case, the hostel is no longer available to the other students of the university. The hostel is now available for both boys and girls doing Management course. The first batch of MBA students, which passed out, had perhaps no satisfactory placement in job market. It is highly unlikely that they are financially well-off by adding value to family business or have made successful startup companies. The enthusiasm for MBA course the university is offering has waned, and this year, only around 15 of the 60 seats were filled up. Some people tend to say that this dwindling interest in Ravenshaw brand is due to economic meltdown. Our Prime Minister, however, has been telling us that India has survived the meltdown and the economy is healthy. The fact is that the West Hostel is mostly unoccupied.
Though the university now permits both girls and boys in the West Hostel, the authorities are eloquent in espousing the virtue of an exclusive corridor for girls on the campus to justify their desire to convert the East Hostel into a hostel for girls. The East Hostel has an expensive amphitheatre close by. So are many offices of the university almost adjacent to this hostel. In fact, the annexe of the East Hostel that used to accommodate around 60 students has been converted into various offices. Certainly, neither the amphitheatre nor the offices are being exclusively used by girls. The concept of the corridor, therefore, does not appear to be convincing.
The problem of overcrowding of girls in some hostels can be substantially eased by transferring girls from the overcrowded hostels to the West Hostel. Even if the East Hostel is available only for girls, the hostel cannot be made habitable for them unless toilets are ready and rooms are furnished. This may take months. Then, why is the West Hostel not being used?
The Management Centre, along with students, can be accommodated in the existing commodious quarters on the campus. A period of five years is long enough to have enabled a responsive administration to create at least three hostels on the campus. Fact is that not even one hostel has been constructed. Let us see what else were constructed or renovated. The university now has an amphitheatre.
It is likely that ten million rupees could have been spent on it. Was its need more important than a hostel? The historic hall of the university was renovated certainly not to provide classrooms. We could have deferred the costly project and utilised about ten million rupees on a hostel.
The university undertook a connectivity project on the campus spending a lot of money. The project has either been abandoned or lying incomplete. By deferring this project to better times, we could have spent the money on a hostel. Did we make the FM Radio station a success? We could have saved at least five million for the hostel. We could have negotiated with the service providers for the self-financing courses and enhanced the university’s share of income.
The decision to covert the West Hostel to the Management Centre in the context of prevailing acute shortage of hostel accommodation was certainly avoidable. More than fifty million rupees spent on renovation –still incomplete—could have been utilised for new hostels. Now, a word about the quality of instructors of self-financing courses would be relevant. The university has a respectable strength of students, around 2,600, studying in various self-financing disciplines. Who are the teachers? Do they have the same qualifications that apply to teachers of the university? Has the university any overriding arrangement with the service providers by which a person not adequately qualified can be prevented from teaching the students? Is the university bound to engage the same service providers till eternity? These are issues the Government should have a look at as it involves quality of education of thousands of boys and girls who are paying for the courses.
Some persons seem to have been appointed against positions/posts that do not exist. One such case relates to appointment as Director, Ravenshaw Knowledge Centre, on contract with a consolidated pay of Rs 65,000 per month. Who else in this State’s Government system has made such an appointment? In the State Government there are precedents when senior servants have been removed from service for having irregularly appointed class IV employees even while such posts existed. Here are cases where posts did not exist; persons are engaged and paid fancy salary. Don’t we swear by equality of treatment? All I am pleading for here is aimed towards upholding the majesty and dignity of my alma mater, a veritable Methuselah among premier educational institutions of the country, and a bright future of the young students.
--The writer, a former civil servant, can be reached at punarbashu@gmail.com
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