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Professional colleges needed
Simplify Hindi
Abhijit Mahato fellowship Campus NoteS
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Professional colleges needed THE introduction of professional courses in the state-run colleges of Haryana a few years ago seemed to be a step in the right direction. More so, as the traditional courses in colleges have failed to equip students with skills requisite for employability. However, the move could not deliver the desired results due to lack of professionalism, coupled with the lack of proper infrastructure and a clear vision on the part of policy makers as well as college administrators. Seen in the global perspective, the demand and sphere of job-oriented and professional courses are on the rise. Hundreds of new institutes and departments are coming up in the fields like management, tourism, mass communication and journalism, hospitality and information technology. The situation prevailing in the government colleges of Haryana raises some serious concerns. First, the need of job-oriented courses has not been fully recognised. After the introduction of such courses, there was little emphasis on strengthening the same. Secondly, the idea of generating employability in graduates and postgraduates in today’s competitive environment and scopes therein was not exploited fully and sincerely. Hence, in the eye of the Education Department, these courses still remain job-oriented and not fully professional. What mars the government colleges at large is the lack of proper atmosphere for professional education. This is due to sharp decline in academics and rise in hooliganism. The students of other traditional courses, who are in majority, add to the non-seriousness of the environment. Presently, most of the government colleges are catering to the needs of a lot that lacks a well-defined aim. Many a college has become infamous for poor discipline, which dissuades the teachers and the handful of career-conscious students. Thus, a sound academic atmosphere is a prerequisite for inculcating professional skills and proper manners amongst the students. The lack of vision on part of the college authorities, who continue to employ outdated ways of functioning, is another cause for concern. Most of the persons heading these institutions have worked in a traditional “sarkaari” environment for most of their lives. Thus, they have either developed rigidity towards innovation and professionalism or simply fail to set the priorities. Inadequate planning for long- and short-term objectives is another problem area. The bureaucrats running the state department of education are changed frequently. Besides, the department has no professional advisory panel to decide the policy issues. Often, important decisions are taken by the administrative officials who hardly have any time to monitor the changing scenario in the field of education and the employment-generating industries. Also, the department is quite generous to the proposals of starting traditional courses in newly established colleges. Despite ample resources at the disposal of the government for promotion of education, the infrastructure in the government colleges continues to remain in a shambles, thanks to the lackadaisical functioning of the authorities concerned and delay in decision making. The mechanism of making purchases and other such tasks is outdated and involves heavy formalities. Every purchase of more than Rs 500 requires the collection of quotations and total proceedings may consume two working days for one person, mostly a teacher, who has to compromise his/her teaching work. Keeping in view the need of the hour and the future relevance, some steps are needed to be taken promptly. First and foremost, all new courses should be recognised as professional courses and not merely job-oriented courses. There should be at least one professional college in every district, wherein all professional courses should be run. These colleges should be run with a professional approach and under the leadership of persons of eminence from the study area concerned. These colleges should be given maximum autonomy in their functioning and should be built separately from the present colleges. Teachers and other staff should be recruited keeping in view their professional proficiency. Some relaxation may be given in academic qualifications for person with sufficient practical exposure. Admissions to professional courses should be made on the basis of a state-level common entrance exam suitably designed to determine the candidates’ aptitude and not just memory. State-of-the-art infrastructure should be built in advance and experienced firms and experts should be hired for works and consultation on various matters ranging from construction to wider policy issues. The panel may include some renowned university or institute and may be more than one in number keeping in view their expertise in various fields. A separate department or independent section should be set up to run the affairs of professional colleges. A panel of renowned academicians should be engaged for guidance in policy matters.
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Simplify Hindi Emphasising the need for promoting the use of the national language, notices have been put on notice boards of government offices, banks, etc., asking people to carry out maximum day-to-day work in Hindi in Devnagari script. However, the lingua franca of the people still does not find many takers in the country. It is usually said that if you are not faithful to your mother tongue, you can’t be loyal to anyone. Across the world, we find people conversing with each other in their own language with pride, yet we shy away from speaking our mother tongue. Many countries are part of the global household where English is not spoken, yet people are passionate about their mother tongue and consider English a link language. However, we don’t fall in this category. Ask any schoolchild his\her liking for Hindi, and the answer invariably is: “It’s a very tough subject.” Hindi is written as it is spoken, unlike English which has hidden sounds that confuse young minds. Easy to write, spoken in a majority of the houses, yet tough! Neha, a student of MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, Chandigarh, says: “Though my folks speak Hindi at home, I have opted for Punjabi as compulsory subject in the college. Since school days, I have found Hindi is a very tough subject because the words that I come across in textbooks are never used at home. And if you don’t understand the key words, the meaning of the passage is not clear.” Dr Manju, Head of the Department of Hindi at DAV College, Sector 10, says: “We must blame the mindset of people because they like to flaunt English. When we can learn tough words in English, then why not in Hindi? Though we can use easier words and make the content interesting, much depends upon the teacher to explain the words so that the students can understand the meaning.” A mother opines: “English does have difficult words but it becomes easier to understand when the same words are repeatedly used in other subjects.” A majority of the students are of the opinion that stories from the Panchatantra, Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc., should be used to make learning fun because children enjoy watching cartoons of mythological figures in Hindi, so they would enjoy reading about them. Also, it would be easier to understand the stories and answer the related questions. This way it would be much easier to learn Hindi, as they would be familiar to a majority of the words used during story sessions with their grandparents. It is the vocabulary that adds to the children’s woes. Most of the mothers agree that when it comes to creative writing in Hindi, the children enjoy writing in simple words. However, when it comes to the technical part, it becomes a little tough for them. The question is: How can we let our children grow with ease with the language that has survived centuries?
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Duke University in the US has established a fellowship in the memory of the slain Indian graduate student, Abhijit Mahato, according to university president Richard Brodhead. The Abhijit Mahato Memorial Fellowship will provide financial support to an international graduate student studying engineering at the university in Durham, North Carolina, with preference given to a student from India. The announcement came last week at a meeting Broadhead had with Indian American community leaders and friends of Mahato. Mahato, 29, originally from Tatanagar, Jharkhand, was an IIT-Kanpur alumnus studying for a Ph.D in engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering when he was found shot dead at his residence near the campus on January 18. Two men have since been charged with his murder. In a letter to Mahato’s parents, Brodhead noted that the university’s trustees had approved the setting up of a memorial and expressed his sorrow over their son’s death. “I attended the memorial services where your son’s professors and his many friends described him with glowing admiration,” the university president wrote in the letter. Welcoming Duke’s move, Swadesh Chatterjee, a prominent Indian American leader who lives in the area, said: “We as Indian Americans are moved by the establishment of the Abhijit Mahato Memorial Fellowship, which will enable international graduate students to continue their education in engineering at Duke.” — IANS
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Campus NoteS A two-day State Agricultural Universities (SAU) Librarians’ workshop on the ‘Digitisation of Indian Agricultural Doctoral Dissertations’ concluded at Haryana Agricultural University recently. Dr Mruthyunjaya, National Director, National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), while inaugurating the workshop appealed to participants to promote digitisation of knowledge, including books, e-journals, e-courses and e-thesis besides ushering in e-governance in libraries. He said HAU’s library had taken a lead amongst libraries of agricultural universities of the nation by launching agricultural doctoral thesis repository in its digital library. He said it would go a long way in promoting innovations. It would also help in value addition to the thesis and dissertations beside checking repetitions. Dr Mruthyunjaya asked the HAU librarian, Prem Singh, to bring out a journal on thesis repository in which abstracts, reviews and the priorities of the university and governments were included. Once this journal was made available on the Internet, it would be a great help to the researchers and academicians. HAU Vice-Chancellor J. C. Katyal in the presidential remarks said this was a project in which all the agricultural universities and central research institutes would be involved. He thanked the ICAR for awarding the project on the digitisation of doctoral dissertations to HAU, adding that the project would have a great bearing on research. He said the digitisation of theses and dissertations and their availability on the Internet would give research scholars and their guides recognition for good research. Organised by the Nehru Library of the University in collaboration with the ICAR, the workshop was attended by the librarians of all state agricultural universities, deemed universities and central research institutes of India. Guru Jambheshwar University of
Science and Technology, Hisar The expert group on setting up the Haryana Knowledge Park (HKP) at Guru Jambheshwar University (GJU) has recommended that the park should focus on life sciences (including bio and nano technology, food technology, green technology), IT, auto and aerospace component design, technology, a business incubation centre and an industrial estate. The group, which met recently, suggested that the park should be an integrated facility providing all necessary infrastructure, labs and other services under one roof to the industries in select areas. The park would also have a Technology Business Incubator where new technology can be commercialised. The group recommended an initial expenditure of Rs 200 crore. It said the 171 acres currently available for the park was sufficient in the first phase. It suggested that the should function as an independent registered society promoted by GJU. The expert group also recommended that the HKP should invite a private partner for the successful implementation of the project. — Contributed by Raman Mohan
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