Visakhapatnam: The shortage of regular teaching staff and principals at government and aided intermediate colleges in Visakhapatnam district appears to have become alarming. Only about 20 such colleges have principals, 117 full-time teachers and 323 contract teachers, official sources said.The sources said that this had been the situation in the district for quite some time and noted that fresh recruitments through the service commission have been few and far between in the last decade. Officials further noted that the crunch could well continue the next year as well, making things worse.“There have been some recruitments through the service commission but despite that, today out of the 36 colleges only 20 have regular principals and the others are being run by in-charge administrators. As for lecturers, there are only 117 regular lecturers, while the remaining 323 are on contract basis,” district vocational education officer, Visakhapatnam, M V N Patrudu, said. The number of principals would decrease further as four out of the present 20 will retire this year, he revealed.Sources in the department claimed that there has been a steady ‘poaching’ of staff by private colleges, especially the big college-chains, which have established junior colleges all across the rural belt. As a result, even the best of the teaching talent is not available to the government colleges.Sources in the regional joint director’s office, Rajahmundry, said that recruitment is not at pace with the number of retirees. They further added that recruitments have been made a few times over the last decade but not enough to replenish much of the senior staff retiring. “It is for the state government to rectify the situation, not just in one district but all over,” a senior official said.

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