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July 13, 2014 


Discrimination in allocation of funds has meant that students in colleges across the state are paying more than seven times the fees for the BCA course compared to what they are paying at the newly commissioned Dharbandora College which is run by BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar. Some colleges say they will have to close down their courses next year.


LISA ANN MONTEIRO  

The grant- in- aid received by a oneyear old college in Dharbandora for their BCA and BBA courses has met with mixed reactions from other colleges in the State. The Gopal Gaonkar Memorial Goa Multi Faculty College in Dharbandora commissioned by BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar began functioning in June 20 last year, offering both BCom and BBA courses.

This academic year the college offered its students BCA ( Bachelor in Computer Applications) and managed to get a grant- in- aid from the government for the course. Nine colleges in Goa-- Damodar, Rosary, Fr Agnel, GVM, MES, Don Bosco, St Xavier’s, Saraswat and DMC have been offering the selffinanced BCA course for over a decade now. They were rather surprised to find that a tenth college that began operations only last year with no proper campus has managed to get a grantin- aid for the course.

The college is being run from the premises of the government middle school in Dharbandora and transport is being provided for the students from Ponda. BCA students in the new college have to shell out only Rs 5000 per year while students in other colleges pay over Rs 39,000 per year. For the threeyear course they spend well over one lakh Rupees.

The nine colleges have seen a very low turnout this year for their BCA courses. Some principals attribute this to the high fees. Others associate it with the drop in the number of students seeking admission this year while others believe the new college has robbed them of their students.

Principal of DMC college, Mapusa, DB Arolkar says the college has seen a 50 per cent drop in students enrolling into the BCA course this year compared to last year. The high fees for the course mean that students need to opt for education loans and other schemes being offered by the government.

It is not only the students who have to bear the high cost of the fees. Lecturers appointed for the self- financed course are appointed on a contract basis and have no job security. One lecturer said she found it strange that the government cannot finance the course.

“ The course is being governed and managed by Goa University. It is GU which sets the syllabus, conducts the exams and confers students their degrees.” Lecturers fear the fees which have been rising steadily each year will go up yet again with the excuse of the 7th Pay Commission which will be implemented in 2016.

The BCA course offers IT education to students from different streams. The students learn accounting, economics, networking, web designing, advertising, animation, graphic designing and software testing. It gives those who have not taken science as a subject in the higher secondary, another chance to get back to technical education.

Damodar College in Margao, the first to set up the BCA course in the State has also seen its numbers drop by half this year.

The Principal of MES College, Dr Maria Rodrigues says the college would usually get students to fill up two divisions ( 40 each). This year they haven’t managed to get 30 students.

She cites the high fees as one reason behind the falling numbers. She also finds it unfair that only one college has managed to get grants for their course.

“ It would be fair if the government could share the burden of the cost for all of us,” she says.

One of the worst effected this year has been Ponda based GVM College that has been offering the course for the past 14 years. Principal P M Bhende says the college already has an established lab with all the facilities for the course even as GU continues to impose conditions on the college, asking them to change computers and upgrade facilities. The new college, he says, has created an imbalance. “ We have received only 15 students this year and will have no option but to close down the course next year. If the new college has been set up to cater to underprivileged students, my college has a fair share of such students as well. Many of my students come from rural areas and from the ST, SC and OBC communities. Some of them cannot even afford to pay the B Com fee of Rs 6000 and ask for time.” BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar claims that most of the students enrolled in the course at Dharbandora are from economically backward and deprived sections of society. The students, he said, weren’t from Ponda but hail from Dharbandora, Sanguem, Pali and Velguem and cannot afford to pay Rs 39,000 per year. “ It is not discrimination because the management of those colleges haven’t followed procedures to obtain grants from the government.

If they have applied for grants, what has happened to their applications? Have they been rejected? They have to go through the proper channels.” The college, administered by Shree Sateri Pissani Education Society is presided over by Gaonkar and has been permitted to have two batches of BBA and one of BCA this year.

College principals allege Gaonkar got funds because of his political affiliation.

They say they haven’t applied for grants because the courses were self financed right from the beginning.

When the issue was raised in the last Assembly session, the CM declined to give the colleges grants.

The principals of the affected colleges met chief minister Manohar Parrikar recently in Panjim and raised this issue among others. But Parrikar sidestepped the obvious partisanship of only a single college benefitting from grants and made it clear that self- financed courses would remain self- financed, providing little hope to the assembled principals. Herald Review