Chandigarh, Monday, December 21, 1998
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Chandigarh, Monday, December 21, 1998 |
| Report rakes up controversy From Jupinderjit Singh THE teachers workload report prepared by Punjabi University to assess shortage or surplus staff in each department has become a contentious issue and is being debated in education circles here. IITs deviate
from objective, fail to produce innovators Virtual
split in PUTA as infighting increases |
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From Jupinderjit Singh THE teachers workload report prepared by Punjabi University to assess shortage or surplus staff in each department has become a contentious issue and is being debated in education circles here. While the University Syndicate has constituted a five-member panel to give its decision regarding the report by year-end, the Punjabi University Teachers Association has stated that the report is "arbitrary and does not present a true picture of the work done by teachers in each department." The PUTA now plans to depute its representatives for studying the veracity of the workload report as well the actual work done by teachers. The controversial report was prepared on the directions of the Punjab Government. The Higher Education Ministry had issued press statements questioning certain appointments. It had cited several complaints lodged by university teachers groups, especially one known for its anti-establishment stand. However, a highly placed university official said the workload assessment has actually "boomeranged" on its complainants as several of them have been found "without work". However, the Punjabi University Teachers Association President, Mr SS Khera, alleges that the report is not made on scientific grounds. He says the workload of a teacher has been prepared by the head of the department, stating how many hours a teacher teaches in a week. The report should have been assessed and prepared by the administrative committee of the departments, Mr Khera argues. He also alleges that the university authorities have prepared an arbitrary report to "justify appointments". Vice-Chancellor Dr Joginder Singh Puar defends the method of workload assessment. He says that teachers who have been found with less work are the ones who have started cribbing about it. He says the workload of a teacher is assessed by calculating the hours per week taught by a teacher. The teacher of Professor rank teaches 6 to 8 hours a week, a Reader 9 to 12 hours a week and a Lecturer 12 to 15 hours a week. The report, he says, also takes into account the time spent by the teacher on practicals, laboratory work or dissertation guidance. It also adds one period per week as consultation time. However, the time spent by the faculty on guiding research students for Ph.D., M. Phil, project reports and administrative work has not been calculated as there is no method to assess the actual time spent on these activities. Another section of teachers feels that the report has caused more confusion among the teaching circles here. It is not clear what the university proposes to do next. For instance, if a teacher is found without work, his post can be shifted but the teacher cannot be told to teach another subject. In such circumstances the teachers would be told to do research work, but then again research work by teachers is not calculated in the workload. Says Dr BS Nanda, a former PUTA chief, it is not correct to assess the work of a teacher by adding the time he spends in imparting education to students in a classroom. On the same lines it will be faulty to say that if a department has six students and six teachers, it has surplus number of teachers. He argues that the real work of a university teacher is to carry on research and not just to teach. A research may take a few days or a year or more and thus one cannot say that the teacher is without work. Further, one must take into account that a teacher has to put in equal labour whether he is teaching a single student or 10. Notwithstanding the arguments and counter-arguments, the report exposes the large number of departments where the available teaching hours are much more than actually required. According to the report, as much as 23 teaching departments out of 49 have been found with surplus staff. The main departments in this category are Botany, Business Management, Hindi, Human Biology, Physics, Political Science, Sociology and Social Anthropology. The departments facing
high paucity of staff are Computer Science and
Engineering, Fine Arts, Laws, Pharmaceutical Science and
Drug Research and Zoology. Regional Centres like Guru
Kashi Regional Centre, Bathinda, and University School of
Business, Talwandi Sabo, have also been found wanting in
staff. |
By Damodar Agrawal THE IIT education has deviated from its original objective. It has been doing it slowly, and has, perhaps, reached a point from which is cannot return. Started in 1951 in Kharagpur, the first Institute was housed in a jail building. It had then become a symbol of sorts as the Hijli Jail was then hallowed by the memory of freedom fighters. By 1961, all five IITs then in existence were brought under a central body called the IIT-Council. This was done under the Technology Act, 1961 which gave them the status of institutes of national importance. In the sense these were totally funded by the Centre and were linked with the country’s technological needs and were treated as different from the mainstream university education. Originally these were intended to train and create a corpus of manpower in science and technology, an essential prerequisite for a country engaged in the task of nation-building. These were, therefore, given the country’s best laboratories and the best physical and academic infrastructure. For a few years all went as expected, but when the market demand for the IIT engineers increased, the pitch was queered. Now, IIT degrees are being used for profit and self-promotion. Hundreds who leave the campus take up jobs in management and marketing with which their IIT education has nothing to do. Hundreds join the IIMs and later land up selling detergents or serving some foreign bank. Hundreds leave for greener pastures abroad, or sit for the civil services to become a bureaucrat. That explains why the IITs have failed to produce innovators. This is not what Jawaharlal Nehru had meant these to be. Today, as there are first-rate professionals, where are the first-rate technologists. Has any of the IITs produced such stalwarts as Saha, Krishnan, Bose, Bhaba or Visvesraya? If today the IITians have no national pride or commitment, is this a success or failure of this educational system? The teachers of IITs are to blame to a great extent. Their main objective seems to be to produce export quality engineers. Teaching programmes and the evaluation system they have evolved are aimed towards the same goal. According to considered opinion, they should now direct their energies towards the creation of theories and innovations. With hundreds of affiliated engineering colleges and so many regional engineering colleges producing thousands of engineers every year, they should change their roles and with tremendous research facilities at their disposal must become the national laboratories of sorts to enhance the knowledge of the sciences. Not that they are not upgrading or diversifying their teaching programmes. They have their coveted master’s courses in science and technology. But they seem mostly to be carbon-copies of the university courses in physics, chemistry and electronics. There, too the motive is to produce talent good only for the market. Their research projects are meant for their own profile building. As this earns them a place in the world’s intellectual market, they leave no stone unturned to utilise the available facilities. And that at the expense of the country. This scribe has not as yet seen any information bulletin of an IIT which mentions that the government spends as much as over 1000 per IIT student per year and as this is a poor nation’s money, an IIT degree should not be used for personal promotion. The system of campus interviews has been the worst culprit. It allows the shoppers to enter campuses in a bigway. To begin with it was good, but to perpetuate a system which has lost meaning is no more than a ritual. One can hardly come across an IITian who is not money-minded. When you talk to him about the gratitude he owes to the nation, you are considered foolish. According to many, they have worked hard to be where they are and where they are. They are there to be somewhere else. They dream of money and a comfortable living and can do any thing to become an NRI. If this is philistinism, this is being encouraged in the IITs. Their teaching programmes are being devised to produce managers and market leaders. The Delhi IIT is running a two-year MBA course in management system. This is tantamount to giving rise to a syndrome we may call the "market culture" and certainly has nothing to do with "pure knowledge". This philosophy of the
marketplace is being reflected in the aspirations of the
competitors for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). |
Virtual split in PUTA as From Jangveer Singh PATIALA: The Punjabi University Teachers Association (PUTA) is sharply divided on the mode of agitation regarding a number of issues concerning the university administration. Earlier too differences had arisen in the PUTA with its president Dr Surinder Singh Khera welcoming the ban or recruitment and the secretary Dr N.S. Atri criticising it. Now both groups have started staging separate dharnas on "internal issues" as well. While the group led by Dr Atri is concentrating on agitating for the implementation of the UGC scales and internal issues like re-employment for teachers after retirement and regularisation of ad hoc teachers who have been served with sack notices, the group led by Dr Khera is spearheading an agitation against Vice-Chancellor Dr Joginder Singh Puar, accusing him of favouritism in the appointment of ad hoc teachers. This has split the PUTA and both groups have started issuing separate releases on the PUTA letterhead. Dr Atri and his group of five members stayed away from the executive meeting called by the other group and later disowned the decisions taken by the divided executive. « « « The substantial increase in the fee structure, specially the examination fee, which resulted in the gherao of the Vice-Chancellor’s office recently, is likely to further affect teaching in colleges affiliated to the university. Agitating students, who have formed a joint Action Committee, have rejected the Vice-Chancellor’s offer to refer the issue to the coordination committee comprising representatives of the university and Guru Nanak Dev University and have demanded a complete roll back. The agitation took a violent turn last week with a 12 police personnel and students were injured when the police resorted to a lathi charge following alleged brickbatting by students. The university authorities have however, refused to budge on the issue and maintained that the fee hike is in consonance with the earlier agreement of maintaining uniformity between the fee structure of Punjabi and the GND universities. They claim as the latter had already increased its fee, Punjabi University was justified in doing so to meet the pressing need for funds. It has also warned students that disciplinary action would be taken against them. It has advised principals of affiliated colleges to take the help of the local administration to maintain peace in their colleges. The joint action committee has, meanwhile, decided to intensify its agitation. However, another agitation started by ad hoc employees has stemmed for now with 185 contractual and daily wage ad hoc employees, who had been given termination notices, deciding to call off a scheduled dharna. The ad hoc employees have decided to withdraw their agitation after assurance given to them by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, that their cases will be considered sympathetically. The Vice-Chancellor has also said that most of the employees will be regularised against available posts. This turnaround by the Vice-Chancellor is in sharp contrast to the earlier action taken by the university in serving dismissal notices to 495 employees, including ad hoc, contractual and daily wage employees. Both factions of the PUTA had backed the ad hoc employees. However, while the PUTA president had said the employees should continue till their posts were rationalised, the secretary had called for regularising of all ad hoc employees. « « « The university is gearing up to hold the 59th session of the Indian History Congress starting on December 28 being organised by the department of Punjab Historical Studies. The Congress, which is being held in the university after a gap of 31 years, promises to be interesting with debates on several contentious issues on which the Left-wing scholars and the pro-BJP academicians differ. At least 700 delegates
from all over the country and abroad are expected. The
congress, which would be inaugurated by the Punjab
Governor, would also see former Prime Minister Inder
Kumar Gujral presenting a paper on formation of free
India’s foreign policy. |
Of education and husbands According to the "Statistical Abstract of the United States," the more education US women get, the fewer husbands they are likely to have. The data, collected by the National Centre for Health Statistics, shows that 3.8 per cent of women who did not complete high school had four or more husbands, reports Associated Press. For high school graduates, the share with four partners drops to 3 per cent. Among those who attended college, 2 per cent had four or more husbands and that fell to 1 per cent for those with college degrees. Overall, 20.2 per cent of women who graduated from college never married, compared with 17.1 per cent who attended college without graduating, 8.7 per cent of high school graduates, and 8.6 per cent who did not finish high school. The overall trend was that women with less education were more likely to have more than one husband. 1 in 6 illiterate Nearly one-sixth of the 5.9 billion people in the world cannot read or write, according to a Unicef study, reports The New York Times. The study, "The State of the World’s Children 1999," predicts that illiteracy rates will steadily grow into the next century because only one of every four children in the poorest nations is now in school. More than half of those denied education are girls. The study found worsening educational conditions in the former Soviet Union, where levels had been high. Apart from deepening divisions between rich computerised societies and those without even the rudimentary tools of knowledge in the Third World, the report says, illiteracy has a direct relationship to important health indicators and fertility rates. An overwhelming percentage of illiterates are in countries with high population growth like India and Pakistan, where better education for women and children could significantly reduce other problems. Foreign students in US colleges The number of foreign
students attending US colleges last year was up 5 per
cent, according to a USA Today report. Despite that
growth, international education experts say the USA still
must work harder to recruit internationally for college
students because other countries are growing more
aggressive in their efforts to recruit globally.
"The goal for the future is to identify barriers to
international education exchange between the US and other
countries and to formulate an action plan to maintain US
leadership," says Keith Geiger, director of academic
programs for the U.S. Information Agency. About 3 per
cent of college students in the US are from other
countries, and they contribute more than $ 7.5 billion to
the nation’s economy in tuition and living expenses. |
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