KARACHI, March 8: An acute shortage of faculty at the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (DCET), Karachi, is causing inconvenience to a large number of students and their future seems to be at stake because of the indifferent attitude of Federal Education Ministry.

The shortage of qualified teachers is also attributed as one of the major reasons which resulted in disaffiliation of the college with the NED University and the Pakistan Engineering Council.

At present, classes in most of the Engineering Departments are not taking place as a number of permanent faculty members have been on leave, whereas a handful of the teachers who attend the college are reportedly reluctant to take classes.

To overcome the teachers’ shortage, the college had hired some qualified teachers on a contract basis, majority of whom have abandoned teaching activities after their contracts expired.

Sources in the DCET said situation at departments of Electronics and Chemical Engineering had reached an impasse, where majority of the permanent teachers were on long leaves, while contractual period of many teachers has also expired.

Out of nine permanent teachers at Electronics department, four are on leave, whereas services of only two are hired on contract basis to cater to the educational requirements of about 650 students. Against 29 scheduled classes only four to five are currently held at the department daily.

“Majority of students of Electronics department have not seen their teachers for months as they rarely take classes,” a student of the Electronics department complained, observing that how it could be possible for six teachers to take 28 periods as mentioned in schedule of the department.

He said two teachers who have been taking regular classes would not be available after few weeks as their contracts would expire, further aggravating the situation.

“The administration is least interested in holding regular classes,” he maintained.

The situation is even more alarming at the Department of Chemical Engineering as for the last many months not a single class has been taken by four permanent faculty members. There are only five permanent teachers, out of which one is on leave, whereas three teachers hired on contract have left the college a few days back.

Surprisingly, DCET principal Saleem Chaudhary, who teaches the final year Chemical Engineering students, has never taken a class after taking charge as head of the institution. The chairman of the department, Nisar Pathan, also reportedly has not taken any class since his appointment as head of the department.

Two other teachers, Hanif Memon and Rashid Ali, at the Department of Chemical Engineering have also never taken pain to take classes, mentioned in the schedule.

The situation is not different at Departments of Industrial and Metallurgical Engineering as almost 90 per cent teachers have long been on leave.

Out of the five permanent faculty members in Department of Industrial Engineering, only one is currently available. However, he has hardly taken any class for months. Not a single class is held since long at the department against the scheduled 16 periods for 100 students.

At the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, three of the six permanent teachers are on leave, whereas only one teacher has been hired on contract basis. Against the scheduled 16 periods for the students of four different batches, two or three classes take place in a week.—PPI