Guru Griho

From Pabna

No Honours in Pabna

Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu

THE Pabna Government Women's College is one of the oldest women's colleges in the country. It's been around for the last 40 years. The Honours programme has already been implemented in most of the oldest women's colleges across the country but this one is still in need of it. Besides this, there are a host of other problems affecting the college.

According to college sources, Talukdar Moslem Uddin, Bazlur Rahman Almaji and some other noted persons of the district established a women's college in 1965 (during the Pakistan era) at the Dilalpur village of Pabna town. It was named Pabna Mohila College at the time. It became a government college in 1980 and was given its present name.

College sources informed that there were 875 students enrolled in the college. The crises of shortages of teachers and other staff hampered regular activities of the college. Right now there are 27 teachers for what should be 38 posts. This means the college is about 11 teachers short- among these two physics teachers, two political science teachers and one Bengali teacher.

On top of the teacher crisis is the staff crisis. Only 12 workers occupy the posts of 27 workers leaving 15 posts vacant. College sources said they were sustaining college activities by hiring extra staff from other colleges and getting payment out of the students.

“Due to the lack of the staff, regular activities are hindered. The college authority has no choice but to hire extra staff and make the students pay extra,” said Md. Shafiqul Islam, Vice Principal.

Another problem: there are not enough subjects on offer even though this is one of the oldest colleges. Crises of teachers and subjects cause students to suffer. Theoretically, Computer Science is offered but there is nobody to teach it. Home Economics is also not on offer.

The college is located in Dilalpur village in the middle of the district headquarter. There is a residential hostel able to house 175 students. The house of the principal and a three storied science building are also there.

The main academic building, the students' residential hostel, the principal's residence and the science building are situated apart from one another. The college also owns a plot of land in Gobinda village. There are chances of a teacher's residence being established here soon.

In spite of all these problems, the academic performance of the institution is good enough. The principal Professor Md. Khalequzzaman Chowdhury said the teachers were very cooperative. He also wants honours to be offered by the college as soon as possible.

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