CHITRAL, July 13: Colleges in Chitral city have been facing an acute shortage of staff that is adversely affecting the academic prospects of local students, it is learnt. More than 50 posts are lying vacant at different government-owned colleges in the city, sources said.

There are two postgraduate colleges, one degree college and one vocational training institute in the city. In the postgraduate college of management sciences, as many as 10 posts of teaching staff of different cadres are lying vacant.

The students lamented that due to the shortage of staff, they had to go to Peshawar University for obtaining M.Com degrees after passing their honours examinations in Chitrali colleges. They said MBA classes had not yet started at the colleges due to non-availability of teaching staff despite launching of an MPA programme three years back. Government College Chitral had been upgraded to the postgraduate level and additional buildings were built but even then no additional staff was sanctioned, sources said. The college was already facing shortage of staff for its degree and intermediate classes as nine posts were yet to be filled, including three posts of grade-19, one post each for a librarian and director physical education.

The worst situation was at the government girls’ college. Although the college had been upgraded to the degree level more than seven years back, no classes for the programme were initiated. More than 10 posts for lecturers and assistant professors were lying vacant.