SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 10: Initially opened as a professional course in 1987 as Bachelor in Journalism and Mass Communication (BJMC), the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) under the Ranchi University is yet to have posts sanctioned for teachers in permanent positions.
The department, which is currently run under the guidance of Director B P Singh and Dy Director Vishnu C Mahto, has 13 faculty members, including the Director and Dy Director. Of these, two faculty members are on a contract basis, eight are guest lecturers and one is a lab tech-cum-educator.
Started in 1987, the department had a one-year BJMC course till 2012, and a two-year PG course MA in Mass Communication, which was launched in 2009. Even though the MA course was continued, the one-year BJMC course was paused till 2021. Later, 2021 saw the introduction of a three-year UG in Mass Communication in the department.
On the other hand, at present, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication has two batches each of UG and PG courses, both of which combined have 177 students. Of these, there are 75 students each in the PG course of 2021-23 and 2022-24 batches. While the newly launched UG course total has 27 students combined in 2021-24 and 2022-25.
Meanwhile, Awadhesh Thakur, president of the Vocational Teachers’ Association of Ranchi University, said there had been several discussions to sanction posts in vocational courses, however, the files are stuck at higher levels. As a result of this, teachers in vocational courses often resort to other part-time jobs to earn money because the pay for both contractual and guest faculty is comparatively lesser than for permanent teachers. This, in turn, affects students, because teachers either leave for better opportunities or are not available on time because of other works.
