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Need to stop the blame game New diploma course in HP Campus
Notes
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Need to stop the blame game The past of the higher education in India has been glorious. India has been the land of some world renowned centres of learning such as Nalanda, Vikramshila and Taxila. It is perhaps this traditional cultural urge for excellence in knowledge and wisdom that spawned and also sustained some of country’s most illustrious institutions of higher learning even in the 19th century. Post Independence, though there has been proliferation of colleges and universities, there is sharp decline in the quality of education being imparted. The era of globalisation has added to the crisis with new challenges. While questions are galore, answers, sadly, are few and far between. Some of these issues were examined at the Principals’ workshop organised by the Academic Staff College, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where heads of some of the country’s oldest colleges were invited. The prominent institutions represented there were: Cotton College, Guwahati (1901) and St. Edmunds College, Shillong (1916) from the North-East to the Presidency college, Calcutta (1887) and the Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar (1886) and St. Bede’s College, Shimla (1904) in the North-West and Maharaja’s College, Mysore (1833) and the Presidency college, Chennai (1840) from the South to Amar Singh college, Srinagar (1942) in the North. Understandably the mood was nostalgic and the pride in the past was palpable despite diversity of contexts and locations. The inaugural lecture delivered by the former Chief Election Commissioner, J. M. Lyngdoh, however, was to change it all. Based on his experiences as the head of the committee who recently made some bold recommendations to the Supreme Court regarding students’ elections in the country Mr. Lyngdoh touched upon some of the painful realities of higher education in India. He underlined the role of political mafia, muscle and money power in the degeneration of academic life in colleges and the universities. Some of the key issues and concerns that hogged central attention in the workshop are as follows. The first and the foremost is the problem of financial crunch. With state showing signs of gradual withdrawal from the social sector and increased stress on generating resources from within, institutions are finding it hard to acclimatise to the new compulsion of being market savvy. Though the participants agreed that in the new scenario the role of the private stake holders and the market can not be wished away there was decisive mandate in favour of dominant role of the state especially in sectors like education. Secondly, grave concerns were expressed about the trend of ‘casualisation of teaching faculties’. The participants argued that this leads to ad-hocism and affects the quality of classroom pedagogy. Thirdly, it was felt that the affiliated colleges should be granted more autonomy so that context specific innovations can be encouraged at the college level. Fourthly, there was strong vote in favour of creating pro-research environment in the colleges. The participants questioned the illegitimate dichotomy of associating the university with the research and college to the teaching alone. Fifthly, there was near unanimity on the need for imparting value-education to the students. It was felt that in the era of globalization where the thrust is on competition and applied knowledge with accent on its utilitarian and instrumental character, there is urgent need to teach the students about values with universal appeal such as humanitarianism and multiculturalism. Sixthly, the challenges faced by the social sciences in the face of vocationalisation of courses were underlined and it was submitted that since pure philosophy and social sciences do not quite fit in to the marketing logic of profit and production it is a critical time for these disciplines and hence need for special attention. Finally there was strong recommendation towards shift at the policy level from metro-centric approach to regional-orientation. The principal of TNB College, Bhagalpur (1883), Bihar was candid and correct when he said that while it can not be denied that globalization has posed new challenges to the already sagging morale of these institutions, that funds and infrastructure are important, however, the crucial point now, is to take the responsibility and stop the blame game. We need policy makers who could think beyond the boxes and make a dent in what goes on in the name of higher education in majority of the colleges across the country, the hopelessly stupefying routinisation of enlightenment project. Fund generation will still be easy. The bigger challenge is to checkmate the mind-sets that seem to have pledged to take higher education to its nadir. And sadly, many of these are enemies from within. Compulsory training for the principals and workshops as organized by the ASC, JNU is a good beginning. Harping on ‘lack of fund and infrastructure’ argument alone makes people like Mr Lyngdoh smell rotten rat in the system.
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New diploma course in HP The Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (HP-STEP) in the Himachal Pradesh University has decided to launch new diploma courses which could open avenues of self employment for the educated youth of the state. The 15th Governing Body meeting of HP-STEP, held at Shimla recently decided to start diploma courses in different fields like Fashion Designing and Interior Decoration (one year) and certificate course in Income and Sales Tax Management, Computer Hardware Assembly Repair, Maintenance and Networking and Mobile Repair (six months). Chairing the Governing Body meeting, the Vice Chancellor, Prof LR Verma advised HP-STEP to use the existing facilities. The VC also stressed the need for establishing linkages with tourism, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and sericulture based industries for employment generation. The Director HP-STEP, Prof S.D. Sharma, informed that many activities like entrepreneurship awareness camps, entrepreneurship development training programmes and skill development training programmes were being organised. Programmes are being conducted in the field of mushroom cultivation and preservation, automobile mechanics, computer hardware repair and maintenance, TV/VCD and DVD player repair, fruit and vegetable processing and preservation and preparation of bakery products. Prof Sharma after the training programmes, the candidates will be guided in preparing project report and financial assistance in setting up their own ventures under self-employment schemes.
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Campus
Notes In an embarrassment to the university
authorities, the 42-day suspension of the university's top scientist, Dr
SP Bhardwaj, has been revoked after the medical board upheld the medical
grounds cited by the scientist for his 86 days leave. Dr Bhardwaj had
been suspended on October 28 after he failed to join at the main campus
in spite of being posted there on September 1. The medical board
constituted under the chairmanship of the medical superintendent
Regional Hospital in Solan, corroborated the fact that he was suffering
from viral hepatitis which had led to jaundice. He had therefore been
advised rest and had proceeded on medical leave since then. Though the
board had given its findings in November, it had become embarrassing for
the university authorities to revoke his suspension. The board had
advised him further rest of as many as 21 days as he was not found fit.
It was perhaps the first case where a scientist who had proceeded on
medical grounds had been suspended on grounds of indiscipline. The
Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jagmohan Singh, was not available for comments as he
was out on official tour. Dr Bhardwaj resumed duty today as a professor
in the department of Entomology. Earlier the Registrar had directed Dr
Bhardwaj to present himself before a medical board on October 17. He was
however suspended by the Vice-Chancellor before he could be examined by
the board. This hasty decision had drawn flak. Dr Bhardwaj had been
serving at the university's Mashobra-based Regional Horticulture
Research Centre before being posted here. He was posted here on
September 1 soon after returning from an official tour abroad. He had
however proceeded on medical leave and had procured a medical
certificate from the state's premier medical institute IGMC, Shimla. Haryana
Agricultural University, Hisar The
newly elected office-bearers of the Haryana Agricultural University
Teachers Association (HAUTA) were sworn in at a ceremony organised on
the HAU campus last week. In the recent election for various posts of
HAUTA office-bearers and executive, Dr Ashok Yadav was elected president
by defeating an earlier incumbent, Dr M.S.Narwal, by a margin of 31
votes. Dr Harish Gulati wrested the post of vice-president, while Dr Raj
Singh was elected secretary of the teachers' body. Dr Dharamvir Dahiya
was elected joint secretary and Dr Sandeep Arya treasurer of the
association. Of the 884 HAUTA members, 827 exercised their right to
vote. The poll was peaceful. —Contributed by Ambika Sharma |
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