A group of students of the College of Agriculture at Ambalavayal under the aegis of the Students’ Federation of India began an indefinite strike on Monday raising grievances including the alleged apathy of the Kerala Agricultural University to acquire the accreditation for the college from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The college was set up in 2018 and as many as 66 seats were sanctioned for conducting a four-year BSc Agriculture science course every year, R. Aswin Krishna, unit president of the organisation, said.
However the university authorities were yet to make any serious efforts to get the accreditation, said Mr. Krishna, who is also a second-year BSc Agriculture science student at the college. This accreditation is very crucial for students to secure admission to educational institutes for higher studies after completing their graduation.
The students of the 2019 batch had completed their course and were eagerly waiting for their post-graduate entrance exam results. However, they were yet to get any assurance from the part of varsity authorities whether they would get seats for higher studies, once they cleared the exam.
The agitators said the varsity had failed to create a single post of teaching staff with the designation of Associate Professor.
The regular academic activities were handled by staff of the Regional Agricultural Research Station or the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Ambalavayal and the temporary assistant professors who were appointed very recently.
Moreover, the students were denied modern facilities such as an academic blocks, full-fledged laboratories, departments, playgrounds, and indoor stadiums, they said.
They said that if the KAU authorities continued the negative approach to the institution, the agitation would be intensified in the coming days.
