Government Colleges Mushroom In Madhya Pradesh With More Staff Than Students

Just 14 kilometers from Madhya Pradesh's capital, Bhopal, stands Phanda Government College - not as a symbol of higher education, but as a metaphor for the rot in the state's public college system. Once envisioned as temples of knowledge, government colleges across Madhya Pradesh are now reduced to echo chambers of empty chairs, deserted corridors, and faculty whose only regular engagement is taking attendance of students whose number seldom cross double digits.

In the last one year alone, 12 new government colleges have been inaugurated, not due to academic demand, but under pressure from political representatives. These institutions, opened in makeshift Panchayat Bhawans and ill-equipped buildings, struggle not only for infrastructure but for their very purpose - students.

At Phanda College, one classroom resembles a tool shed more than a learning space. Axes, spades and pickaxes lie scattered on the floor. The cracked cement and dusty blackboard might suggest a rural workshop, not a space for first-year students to study.

In another room, dumbbells and a treadmill compete for space with desks and chairs - a bizarre hybrid of gym and classroom where education and bodybuilding are expected to go hand-in-hand. Water is stored in buckets and heat is tackled by a green sheet pinned to the wall - a modern-day austerity chamber.

According to government records, 17 students are enrolled in Phanda College across two classes. On most days, only five or six attend. Ironically, the faculty count is also 17 - equal to the total number of enrolled students, though many of them remain absent too.

Local BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma, under whose influence the college was opened, admitted, "It's true that children aren't going to college or taking admission. Once they do, we will think about the building."

But this is not an isolated case.

In the last three academic sessions, 12 colleges were opened on the recommendation of MPs and MLAs. In the election year 2023-24 alone, 42 more colleges were hastily launched, yet most struggle to cross even double-digit student enrollment.

Of the 571 government colleges in the state, 119 have fewer than 100 students. Many new institutions have less than ten. Staffing, too, remains ad hoc - 90 per cent of the colleges have no permanent principal; only 13 out of 435 have full-time heads.

Most of these colleges have been opened in constituencies of ruling party leaders, prompting the opposition to accuse the government of using education as an electoral ploy.

"Colleges were opened without any demand or survey, just in BJP MLAs' areas to appease the youth and collect votes," said Congress's former MLA Sukhendra Singh Bana.

Raigaon in Satna tells a similar story. With 16 students and 15 staff, plus one in-charge principal, the Government college, Raigaon appears to be a comically precise model of equality - one teacher per student, and sometimes more. However, classes rarely take place. Instead, the corridors echo with silence, and faculty members wait with the hopeful gaze of hosts expecting guests at a party that never begins.

Student Union Aspirants Without Students

Ironically, in these deserted colleges, there are still aspiring student leaders.

In Phanda, a young man, Rahul Mewada, hopes to become the student union president. He isn't enrolled yet, but plans to transfer from another college next month. "If the number of students increases, I'll contest. I'm with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad - it's a step below BJP," he confidently said.

These institutions stand as monuments to mismanagement - colleges without students, faculties without purpose, and policies without foresight. Where once knowledge was to be imparted, now there are locked doors, borrowed buildings, and blackboards that haven't seen chalk in months.