The DU Principals claimed that the colleges are ready to increase the number of seats from 66,000 to 70,000 to implement the EWS category but facing several challenges.
51 constituent colleges of Delhi University will be increasing undergraduate seats from 66,000 to 70,000. The DU Principals claimed that the colleges are ready to increase the number of seats to implement the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
The central government’s directive released in January 2019 asked all educational institutions to add supernumerary seats. Following the directive, the number of seats had gone up from 55,000 in 2018 to 66,000, last year. However, 10 percent of seats were reserved under the EWS category.
DU Colleges To Increase Seats But Faces Several Challenges
However, the DU colleges pointed out the challenges they are facing in increasing the seats. The challenges have arisen mainly due to issues like lack of infrastructure, shortage of funds, and faculty members. This year each college is expected to have about 150-250 extra seats to offer.
Coronavirus has likewise added an extra burden on colleges as they need to oversee online learning resources. However, the colleges need to get ready to reopen under social distancing standards, which further adds another layer of problems.
DU college principals said that on one hand some of the colleges are waiting to receive the funds promised to them by the government to implement the EWS reservation. While on the other hand, some colleges are waiting to go ahead and hire faculty members. The principals also mentioned that there are institutions that have extra buildings ready, but no funds to manage benches.
Ramjas College principal Manoj Khanna conferred, “Our college has an extra building ready to accommodate the additional number of students… but there are no funds to get the extra benches. At present, this is not a looming issue, because students are not coming to college, but when all of them do come in, how will we manage?”
He further added, “Not just us, many other colleges have also not received additional funds promised under the EWS category implementation. We are happy to offer additional seats; we have no problems with that. But the government should have at least consulted with the principals first, before asking us to do something.”
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