MANGALORE: A State-level conference of degree college principals here has urged the Government to fulfil its Constitutional obligations by increasing aid to higher education. The conference organised by the State Federation of Degree College Principals' Associations also passed seven resolutions.

President of the federation Y. Bhaskar Shetty and president of Indian Colleges' Forum K.E. Radhakrishna told presspersons that in the last two decades, the Government had drifted away from its responsibility of supporting higher education, and since 1987 it had not recruited any teachers or non-teaching staff. Approximately 3,000 posts of college teacher in the State were lying vacant, they said. The Government should continue providing grant-in-aid to existing colleges and also bring all unaided courses under the grant-in-aid scheme. The reported move by the Government to stop grants to evening colleges was anti-poor students, they said. Further, the Budget allocation to higher education had been on the decline in the last few years, they added.

The principals' representatives said the Government had not made primary education accessible to all. Statistics revealed that primary education was yet to reach 26 per cent of the population in the State. In the cause of development, they said, at least 15 per cent of the students who passed the pre-university examination in the State should get access to higher education. At present, only 6.7 per cent of these students were getting into higher education, they said. Participants at the conference, which ended on Saturday, asked the Government not to link the National Assessment and Accreditation Council grading of colleges to the sanctioning of grant-in-aid.

`Rectify discrepancies'

The participants also urged the Government to rectify discrepancies in the service conditions of the employees of aided institutions. The conference resolved to impress upon the Government the need to teach English from first standard to empower the poor, even while taking steps to strengthen the teaching of Kannada in schools.

Vice-president of the federation Devaraj K. and General Secretary B.S. Srikanta were present.

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