Arts out of favour in city colleges
With number of students opting for BA courses dwindling due to abundance of professional courses, city colleges fear that in a couple of years they will have surplus teachers
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Saturday, June 06, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=200906062009060603063955161824ef)
With the number of students opting for Bachelors courses in Arts decreasing every year, the teachers in the city colleges could be twiddling their thumbs this year. While the number of students opting for BSc has been going down because of the choice of professional courses, the Arts stream has no takers because of declining interest among students.
The Gujarat University affiliated Arts colleges declared their first merit list on Thursday. The cut-off percentage has registered a drop by five to seven per cent as compared to last year. In 2007, 26,489 students took up Arts in GU colleges. The number went down to 26,000 in 2008 and principals of city colleges predict the number will go further down this year. The exact figure will be known once Gujarat University enrolment forms are filled up after the college admission process is over.
The merit lists clearly show that a majority of students, irrespective of the medium they come from, prefer English literature over Hindi, Sanskrit and Gujarati that used to be quite popular all these years.Says Mahipatsinh Chavda, principal of L D Arts College, “The scenario has changed drastically in the last three years. Class XII passouts in Arts are opting for vocational courses over a BA so that they land up a job soon. Last year, we distributed 3,000 admission forms. This year only 1,500 forms were picked up.”
Though the top 10 Arts colleges are not likely to face a supply crunch, the ones on a sticky wicket are the colleges in walled city areas. They fear there would be a surplus of teachers in a couple of years. There is a formula to decide the workload of a teacher, which includes factors like number of periods and students. Accordingly, if a teacher becomes surplus, the first option is he can be transferred to the other branch of the same educational institute where there is dearth.
The second option is inter-institute transfer and the third one is inter-regional transfer where one can be transferred to the other district. St Xavier’s, L D Arts and H K Arts are the most popular colleges for Arts students. In L D Arts, in 2007, the cut-off for English literature was 78 per cent, in 2008 it went down to 65 per cent and this year it has dropped further to 62 per cent.
Principal of H K Arts College Subhash Brahmbhatt says, “Last year our cut-off was 72 per cent and this year has dropped to 70 per cent. One of the major reasons why there are less takers for Arts is that many higher secondary schools have stopped offering the subject.”
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Saturday, June 06, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=200906062009060603063955161824ef)
With the number of students opting for Bachelors courses in Arts decreasing every year, the teachers in the city colleges could be twiddling their thumbs this year. While the number of students opting for BSc has been going down because of the choice of professional courses, the Arts stream has no takers because of declining interest among students.
The Gujarat University affiliated Arts colleges declared their first merit list on Thursday. The cut-off percentage has registered a drop by five to seven per cent as compared to last year. In 2007, 26,489 students took up Arts in GU colleges. The number went down to 26,000 in 2008 and principals of city colleges predict the number will go further down this year. The exact figure will be known once Gujarat University enrolment forms are filled up after the college admission process is over.
The merit lists clearly show that a majority of students, irrespective of the medium they come from, prefer English literature over Hindi, Sanskrit and Gujarati that used to be quite popular all these years.Says Mahipatsinh Chavda, principal of L D Arts College, “The scenario has changed drastically in the last three years. Class XII passouts in Arts are opting for vocational courses over a BA so that they land up a job soon. Last year, we distributed 3,000 admission forms. This year only 1,500 forms were picked up.”
Though the top 10 Arts colleges are not likely to face a supply crunch, the ones on a sticky wicket are the colleges in walled city areas. They fear there would be a surplus of teachers in a couple of years. There is a formula to decide the workload of a teacher, which includes factors like number of periods and students. Accordingly, if a teacher becomes surplus, the first option is he can be transferred to the other branch of the same educational institute where there is dearth.
The second option is inter-institute transfer and the third one is inter-regional transfer where one can be transferred to the other district. St Xavier’s, L D Arts and H K Arts are the most popular colleges for Arts students. In L D Arts, in 2007, the cut-off for English literature was 78 per cent, in 2008 it went down to 65 per cent and this year it has dropped further to 62 per cent.
Principal of H K Arts College Subhash Brahmbhatt says, “Last year our cut-off was 72 per cent and this year has dropped to 70 per cent. One of the major reasons why there are less takers for Arts is that many higher secondary schools have stopped offering the subject.”
