Govt girl’s college in Gurugram grapples with lack of classrooms, PG courses

Students of Government Girls College in Sector 14 are forced to study in the open due to a severe shortage of classrooms. On any given day, students can be seen sitting on the ground or footpaths as they take lessons amid outdoor noise. On Thursday morning, the college’s student union president, Shikha Raghav, met public works department(PWD) minister Rao Narbir Singh at his residence and submitted a letter highlighting the lack of infrastructure in the college.

The letter addressed issues such as shortage of classrooms and demand for the introduction of more postgraduate(PG) courses in the college. Shikha Raghav, who is also a BA final-year student, said, “We met the PWD minister to highlight the concerns of the student community. There are about 3,500 students in humanities, but there is no permanent building for them. Classes are held out in the open. Be it summer or winter, students are made to sit on the ground and study. During winter months, the bare minimum of a carpet is also not made available.”

Earlier in January, Raghav had written a similar letter to the principal, seeking creation of another block of classrooms. However, no immediate response to the same was received. “The higher education department has plans of turning the institution into a model college, but the basic infrastructure is not in place,” said Raghav. She requested the minister to look into the concerns of the students.

Megha, a first-year student of MA English, said that the college had been facing a shortage of classrooms for the past several years. “During graduation, almost all our classes used to take place in the open. It’s only after getting enrolled in PG that we were allotted new rooms. Even the new rooms are overcrowded and crammed. It’s difficult to manage with 60 students in one room,” she added.

The letter shared with Singh also outlined the inadequacy of PG courses in the college. “There are very few PG courses in our college. Students from the college have been asking for the introduction of more courses, especially in political science, Hindi, biology, math, and chemistry,” the letter stated.

The college is the only girls’ college in the city. It has 7,300 students and 121 rooms, as per the principal. Sushila Sharma, principal, Government Girls College, said that she had written to the higher education department and sought approval for the creation of another block.

“We have plans of creating a new science block. Once that is ready, the shortage of classrooms will be met. We have also received approval for creating another block with 16 classrooms,” said Sharma.

On the prospect of increasing PG courses, she said, “We have written to the higher education department requesting more such courses. However, these courses cannot be started right now. One will have to wait for the next session for more development on this front.”