Four Goa-run colleges headless as govt sits on GPSC names

PANAJI: Four major professional colleges in the state are currently functioning without a regular principal or head of institution even as highly-qualified and experienced candidates have been recommended for these posts by the Goa Public Service Commission.
The Goa College of Engineering, Goa College of Architecture, Goa College of Art, and Goa Medical College are all currently headless.
Most of these institutes are under the control of the director of technical education, and questions are now being asked in academic circles as to why the government is delaying the appointments of these institutional heads.
The engineering college, in Farmagudi, was without a full-time principal for more than 15 years till the commission recommended Dr K Mysuru, who joined in 2018 but has since proceeded on long leave, leaving the college without a principal.
The Goa College of Architecture has been without a principal for more than a decade now, and recently, the GPSC recommended Dr Leon Morenas to the position, Similarly, the commission recommended Dr Prajakta Parvatkar to the position of principal, Goa College of Art, which has been lying vacant since 2019. The government turned down both these recommendations without citing any reasons.
Recently, the commission had recommended that Dr J P Tiwari be appointed dean, GMC. This proposal too has been lying with the government for more than a month.
An educationist said that the government’s indecision on the issue of appointment of principals shows the scant regard it has for improving the quality of education in the state. He added that the fact that no state-run professional college finds mention in the recently-released list of top colleges in the country points to poor leadership at the policy and institutional level.
In 2017, the government approved the appointment of five principals to government colleges, and significant improvements have been seen at these institutions; in fact, government college, Khandola, features in the top colleges list. In times of online learning with the hybrid format of educational content delivery being the norm in the future, students of these top institutions will be the ultimate losers in the absence of full-time heads of institutions, educationists feel.