Imphal, May 19: Even as the Union Govt has initiated several measures to develop higher education in the country in line with the global perception that a society can become a progressive one only when higher education is developed, the successive Governments in the State have been neglecting the higher education resulting in gradual decline in its standards, lamented president of the All Manipur College Teachers' Association P Laingam.

As per the guidelines of the UGC, the 28 Govt colleges in the State should have 1918 teachers but these colleges have a total of 993 teachers only.

Moreover, there have been no regular Principals in these colleges for the last 20 years.

Acting on an official order issued by the Ministry of Human Resources Development to the Chief Secretaries in 2006, MPSC published advertisements for appointment of 280 teachers.

However, the order has not been executed till date.

Observing that absence of regular Principals in all the 28 Government colleges have been severely impeding proper functioning of the colleges, P Laingam decried the failure of the Government to post regular Principals despite its repeated appeals and reminders for the last 20 years.

As a result of such malpractices and negligence, there has been no full-fledged Director in the Higher Education Dept, he noted.

Another factor adding to the down fall of higher education in the State is the undue political interference in the appointment Principals-in-charge, Laingam rued while appealing to all concerned not to politicise education and to make it a free zone.

As per an instruction issued by the Human Resource Ministry to the UGC in March this year, it was suggested to extend the age of superannuation for higher and technical education to 70 years from the present 62-65 years, he conveyed.

The same instruction has been deliberately ignored in the State, he decried while concluding that such indifferent and casual attitude of the Government towards higher education and teacher community would cost dear to the State in future.

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