Mangaluru: Govt pre-university colleges in Karnataka continued to lag behind aided and unaided institutions in the second PU examination, despite officials citing an improvement over last year.Results announced Thursday showed that govt PU colleges recorded an overall pass percentage of 78.7%. Of the 1,32,214 students who appeared from these colleges, 1,04,081 cleared the examination. While the department said the outcome was better than the previous academic year, it acknowledged that the performance remained below expectations.Dakshina Kannada emerged as the best-performing district among the 32, with govt PU colleges registering a pass percentage of 92.4%. Udupi and Uttara Kannada also figured among the top performers, underlining the strong showing of coastal Karnataka.Several districts in North Karnataka continued to struggle. Kalaburagi, Yadgiri, Raichur, Ballari and Davanagere all recorded pass percentages below 70%, placing them among the weakest performers.District-wise data showed that nearly half of Karnataka’s districts posted pass percentages below 80%, while five districts fell below the 70% mark. The results renewed concerns over the condition of govt PU colleges, particularly in rural and underserved areas.Senior faculty members attributed the poor performance to a shortage of full-time teachers. Lecturers said many govt PU colleges largely rely on guest faculty, while permanent teachers are often deputed to institutions facing staff shortages. Such deputation, they said, usually limits faculty presence to a few days a week, affecting continuity in teaching and student engagement.One senior faculty member said effective teaching becomes difficult when teachers are not available throughout the week. Another lecturer said the govt should consider restructuring colleges without permanent faculty, including merging them with nearby institutions or shutting those that are no longer viable.Director of pre-university education, Bharath S, acknowledged that govt colleges performed poorly compared to aided and unaided institutions. However, he said the results marked an improvement of around 21% over the previous year. He rejected the view that guest faculty alone were responsible for the weak outcomes and said the department would hold meetings with heads of govt colleges to improve the academic environment and raise performance levels.
