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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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NET of discord
St James School wins Slater debate
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NET of discord
Even though the education sector is booming in India, the shortage of quality faculty continues to be a nagging concern. This is one of the reasons why many teaching posts in universities and colleges across the country are lying vacant since long. But why do students, despite having done postgraduation and doctorates, fail to make it to the teaching profession? Are they not qualified enough even after doctorate degrees? These questions are haunting educationists and until we find the root cause of this anomaly, it will be impossible for us to stem the degeneration in our education system. The reason seems to be that quality, too, has its value and not quantity alone. Even the University Grants Commission (UGC), responsible for coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India, felt this need and introduced the National Eligibility Test (NET) in 1989 to bring about uniformity in the selection criterion. But after 17 years of its introduction, NET has lost its relevance, if we go by the interim report of the Mungekar Committee, a NET review committee formed by the government to consider its utility, effectiveness and continuity, under the chairmanship of Prof Bhalchandra Mungekar, a Member of the Planning Commission. The committee has already submitted its report to the UGC, and has suggested scrapping of NET. It has also proposed M.Phil as minimum qualification for teaching undergraduate classes and PhD for teaching postgraduate classes. Are we ready for the reversion to pre-1989 selection procedure? Have the reasons for which the test was introduced—to bring about uniformity and objectivity in selections and to ensure merit—been nullified? Or are we lowering the minimum qualification to fill up the vacancies or to benefit certain vested interests. The ground reality is that most of the students, even after earning M.Phil or PhD, fail to clear the NET and hence seek exemption. The test merely aims at finding out whether the incumbent has knowledge of the subject or not. If M.Phil or PhD students think they have knowledge of the subject, why are they balking at taking the test? Therefore, the proposed changes have invited widespread criticism. “NET was instituted as an impartial, unbiased and corruption-free route for the appointment of lecturers. The committee’s recommendation is clearly retrograde. It will bring back nepotism and corruption in educational institutions,” says Gagandeep Singh, a student who has cleared NET. A professor at Panjab University remarked that when postgraduate students fail to succeed on all fronts, they join M.Phil or PhD. Even the committee formed by the UGC in 1983 under the chairmanship of Prof R. C. Mehrotra felt that “the stipulation of M.Phil/PhD as an essential qualification for lecturers had neither been followed faithfully nor did it necessarily contribute to the raising of teaching and research standards. In fact, it was of the view that, if at all, it had led to the dilution of research standards on account of the rush to get a research degree in the shortest possible time”. Lowering the criterion for minimum qualification will not help in filling up the vacancies. This is the most absurd logic. Instead of offering better remunerations to attract wider talent to the teaching profession, the UGC may opt for the lowering of the qualification criterion. This is an acute myopia on the part of policy-makers who think that plenty of people should become educationists, irrespective of whether they are worthy or not. India is an emerging state internationally and any such move that dilutes the education standards and uniformity in the selection system will decelerate the nation’s move on the development path. Instead of thinking on changing the selection procedure, the UGC should constitute a committee to study the reasons why students who have done M.Phil and doctorates fail to clear NET, which is currently mandatory for appointment.
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St James School wins Slater debate
SHIMLA: St James School from Kolkata won the Dr Samuel Slater Memorial Invitational Inter-School English Debate, held at Bishop Cotton School here on April, 29.
The inter-school English debate has over the years attained the status of one of the top ranked inter-public school debates. This year, 11 top public schools of the country participated in the debate. St James School defeated Doon School, Dehra Dun, in the final round, the topic for which was ‘India has arrived’. The chief guest for this final round was Mr Benny Joseph, Principal, Clarence High School, Bangalore. The participants at this year’s competition included La Martinere Girls School, Kolkata; La Martinere Boys School, Kolkata; Sri Ram School, Delhi; St James School, Kolkata; Mayo College for Girls, Ajmer; Sagar School, Alwar; Doon School, Dehra Dun; Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior; Welham Girls School, Dehra Dun; Auckland Scholl and Bishop Cotton School, Shimla.
Some of the topics which were debated by the students were ‘Privatisation is the best argument against reservation’, ‘Love unites’, The bullet is necessary for the ballot’, ‘Justice today is in the hands of the rich and the powerful’, ‘Age is no restriction to wisdom’, ‘Corruption can no longer thrive in India’ and Classical literature only perpetuates archaical notions’. Revd Samuel Slater was appointed the Headmaster of Bishop Cotton School in 1859 after being shifted from St Paul’s, Darjeeling. He served the school for 20 years and it was in 1995 after 136 years that the school authorities decided to hold a debate competition, which would facilitate friendship, exchange of ideas to foster student interaction. It was for the first time in 1996 that invitations were sent to schools in Ajmer, Mussorie, Dehra Dun, Gwalior, Patiala and other places to take part in the debate. The format of the debate was set on the Cambridge pattern to generate a healthy debate on prevalent issues faced by the country. The paucity of space within the school premises has limited the number of schools, which are invited to the debate. Some of the eminent persons who have been judges at the debate over the years are Mrs Amita Malik, Dr Shibhna Bhattacharya, Mr Mark Tully, Mr H. Kishie Singh, Mrs Shama Fatehally and Mr Umesh Anand.
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Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Six MBA students of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) were selected by Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd. (IDBI Bank) through campus placements at a salary package of Rs 4.5 lakh per annum. Dr Rajneesh Arora, Director, Placements, said the six students—Mrigesh, Baljit Kaur, Pulkesh and Seema (Amritsar Campus), Nishant and Ruchi Aeri (Jalandhar Campus)—had been selected by the IDBI Bank. This was the second job offer for these students. They were earlier placed in companies like Forties Securities, India Bulls, JCT, etc., he added. Dr Arora said 90 students of MBA have been placed in different companies through the campus and off-campus placements. Centurian Bank of Punjab (24), India Bulls (22), Max New York Life Insurance (12), Malwa Industries Ltd., Ludhiana (2), Nestle Moga (1), JCT Phagwara (3), Fortis Securities (3), HDFC Bank (5), Kotak Securities (6), Bajaj Allianz (3), Khanna Paper Mills (2), ICICI Prudential (4) India MART (2) and Amritsar Swadeshi Textile Corp. (1). They would be joining their respective companies in June, 2006, immediately after their final exams. He said various multinational companies were competing with each other to get maximum final-year MBA students through campus placements. In view of high-market demand, it is expected that many students would have more than one job offer before their final exams in May, 2006. He further announced that 370 students of different courses at GNDU, who would pass out in June, 2006, had been offered jobs by different national and multinational companies. — Contributed by Pawan Kumar
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