Kathmandu:Government colleges that used to be overcrowded are losing students to private institutions at an alarming rate.

Admission records of many government colleges in the Valley show that their popularity as centres of learning is fast depleting, with an unprecedented drop in student enrolment of more than 50 percent over the past two years.

At Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus on the Exhibition Road, 2,221 students were enrolled for the day and night shifts in 2009. But the number fell to 1,400 in 2010 and 456 in 2011. Enrolment rate in the campus dropped by 66 percent in a year’s time.

The situation is worse at Patan Multiple Campus (PMC). In 2009, the college had around 2,000 students in the bachelor's level in its science, management and humanities streams. The number fell 40 percent to 1,200 in 2010. The figure this year is 500.

“We used to have hundreds of students in a class. There has been such a huge drop in their number now that we are lucky if we have a dozen,” said Chandra Prakash Awale, administrative officer at PMC. At Tri-Chandra (TC) College, which had one of the highest enrolment rates in the Science faculty in the past, saw admissions drop by 900 in 2010 from the preceding year. Though admissions to the bachelor's level were supposed to close in November in these colleges, poor student inflow has forced them to keep the doors open even in January. To attract students, PMC has started running classes in three shifts—morning, day and evening.

Campus chiefs blame student unions and politicisation of the academic environment, coupled with the university’s failure to maintain a strict academic calendar, for the depleting numbers. But education experts also point to issues like quality of education and teachers’ dedication in the public institutions. They say the Tribhuvan University increased tuition fees manifold but took no commensurate step to ensure the quality of education.

Two years ago, TU increased tuition fees by nearly 500 percent—making education imparted by government colleges as costly as that at many private colleges.

“Fees were hiked five-fold, without taking any initiative to improve the quality of education,” said Bidhya Nath Koirala, an education expert and member of the University Grants Commission.

source:The Kathmandu Post,3 Jan 2011