Teachers of private aided colleges of Punjab – struggling for Survival: A descriptive analysis

At present (2014–15), Punjab is having one central university, ten state universities, two deemed universities, twelve private universities, six autonomous colleges, ten medical colleges and many technical & professional colleges. Punjab University, Chandigarh (1948) is having 186 affiliated colleges providing general higher education; (ii) Punjabi University, Patiala (1962) is having 221 affiliated colleges providing general higher education; and (iii) Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (1969) is having 151 affiliated colleges providing general higher education in the state which constitute total number of 558 affiliated colleges providing general higher education in Punjab out of which 48 are government colleges and 136 are private aided colleges and remaining 374 are purely private self financing colleges. This shows that there is a mushroom growth of purely private self financing colleges providing general higher education in Punjab. Most of them are working with unqualified faculty with profit motive which is against the spirit of encouraging quality education in India especially Punjab. Out of colleges recognized by the UGC under Section 2 (f) and 12 (B) of the UGC Act, 136 private aided colleges are situated in the state of Punjab. Such colleges come under the umbrella of grant-in-aid scheme which was started by the Punjab government in 1978 to encourage private managements to open colleges for youth. It is also seen that very big portion i.e. 94 percent of the higher education budget is used for salary payments by the state government and very lower amount i.e. 2 percent is available for the development of all the colleges and universities in Punjab. It is another very unfortunate that amongst top twenty states of the country (including neighboring states of Haryana and UP), Punjab is the only state which has not yet implemented the Pension-Gratuity Scheme for staff of aided colleges. That pension scheme has received the approval of five Cabinets led by Sr. Beant Singh, Sr. H.S. Brar, Smt. Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Sr. Parkash Singh Badal. Since it is an unimplemented decision of the previous Punjab Governments headed by different political parties, while the present Punjab Government has vanished the hopes of the retired private college teachers by introducing a bill (No.22-PLA-2012) in the state legislature assembly named as “THE PUNJAB PRIVATELY MANAGED AFFILIATED AND PUNJAB GOVERMENT AIDED COLLEGES, PENSIONARY BENEFITS SCHEME, 1996 (REPEAL) BILL, 2012” on 21/12/2012 which does not deserve your approval/assent on many grounds.