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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Panjab university
Increase the salary, but ensure quality teachers
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Panjab university PANJAB University has the unique character of being governed by its democratically elected Senate wherein the representatives from different constituencies covering all the sections of the society who have a connection with the university are elected. Besides elected Senators, the Vice-President of India, who is the Chancellor of the university, nominates 36 members on the Senate, making it a 91-member house, which includes six ex-officio members—Chief Minister of Punjab, Education Ministers, Punjab, Advisor to Administrator, UT, DPI (C), Punjab and that of Chandigarh and Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court. Six members, one from each faculty, areelected from the faculties of languages, science, arts, law, medical and combined faculties (commerce and business management, education, engineering and technology, pharmaceutical sciences, design and fine arts and dairying and animal husbandry). In the faculties, the electorate consists of the members of the Senate having been assigned the respective faculties, professors of the university in the respective faculty and the members added to the respective faculties by the Senators. However, in the combined faculties, all the sitting members of the Senate are part of the Electoral College. While three each from the principals and teachers of professional and technical colleges are elected, two each from the university professors and readers-lecturers’ constituency are elected. In addition, eight each from the teachers and principals of affiliated degree colleges of the university and 15 from the graduate constituency are elected. After the four phases of elections, which held recently for the governing body of Panjab University, the university has now got fresh Senate for a period of four years—from 2008 to 2012. The first phase of Senate polls on August 27, 2008, saw Ashok Goyal defeating Dr Deepak Manmohan Singh. Goyal’s victory was significant, as he dethroned Deepak Manmohan, who was considered to be a formidable opponent and had been on the university Senate for 32 years. Prof Naval Kishore and Keshav Malhotra too registered record wins from their respective faculties. Former Advocate-General, Punjab, and PU Fellow G. K. Chatrath also retained his seat. Besides, A. K. Saihjpal and Rajinder Bhandari also won from their respective faculties as they had been already elected unopposed. The next phase was for the elections of principals and lecturers of technical colleges. Among those who were elected include principal Ravinder Kaur of Malwa Khalsa College, Ludhiana; principal S. S. Sangha of Dashmesh College of Education, Badal, and Dr Raj Bahadur, principal, GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh. Interestingly, Dr Raj Bahadur was elected against the lone seat reserved for UT after defeating Dr Jyoti Khanna of Dev Samaj College. Among the teachers for three seats from the constituency of teachers of professional and technical colleges, Dr S. K. Singh of PGI, Jasbir Kaur Chahal of Government College of Education, Sector 20, and Tarlok Bandhu of Malwa Khlasa College of Education, Ludhiana, got elected. Then next phase of Senate polls was for the readers and professors from Panjab University campus for two seats each. From the readers-lecturers’ constituency, Dr Karamjit Singh from the arts stream and Dr Kamaljeet Singh from the sciences were elected. From the professors’ constituency, N. K. Ojha from the arts and Rupinder Tiwari from the sciences were elected. This was followed by the polling for the principals and lecturers of affiliated colleges and graduate constituency for eight seats each. Among the principals, Dr A. C. Vaid, principal, GGDSD College, Sector 32, and Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal, principal, Guru Nanak College for Girls, Muktsar, were the first ones to be declared elected. Among others who got elected include B. C. Josan, principal, DAV College, Sector 10; Gurdip Kumar Sharma, principal, GGDSD College, Hariana (Hoshiarpur); Hardiljit Singh Gosal, principal, Govind National College, Govind Nagar, Narangwal; Janmit Singh, principal, Taravati Memorial Degree College, Bringali, Mukerian (Hoshiarpur dist); and Satish Kumar Sharma, principal, Lajpat Rai DAV College, Jagraon, Ludhiana. Interestingly, only two newcomers, Janmit Singh and R. S. Jhanji, were elected out of the total five new contestants. A total of 13 candidates had contested elections for eight seats in this constituency. In the teachers’ constituency, Mukesh Arora, lecturer, SCD Government College, Ludhiana, was the first one to be declared elected and got maximum numbers of votes. He was followed by Harpreet Singh Dua, lecturer, Gujranwala, Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Ludhiana, followed by Dinesh Talwar, lecturer, DAV College, Sector 10; Dalip Kumar, lecturer, GCG, Sector 42; I. S. Sandhu, lecturer, DAV College, Abohar; Kuldip Singh, lecturer, Guru Nanak National College, Doraha, Ludhiana; P. S. Gill, lecturer, SGGS College, Sector 26; and R. P. S. Josh, lecturer, Government College for Girls, Sector 42. The elections for the 15 seats in the graduate constituency were also held the same day (September 21). This being the largest constituency, with around 2 lakh voters, a total of 66,540 votes were polled, out of which 55,387 votes were valid and 11,153 votes were declared invalid. While candidates from three reserved seats, including one from Chandigarh and two from Punjab were the first ones to be declared elected to the Senate, two other candidates cleared the quota of 3,462 votes fixed by the returning officer for the graduate constituency in the first round of counting. These include M. L. Aeri, Director (Colleges) of the DAV Managing Committee, who pocketed the maximum number of votes. He was followed by another candidate sponsored by the DAV Managing Committee, Junesh Kakaria, who cleared the quota by getting 4,007 votes. The only seat reserved for candidate from Chandigarh went to first-timer Rajbans Singh Gill of Punjabi University, Patiala. The other two reserved seats for Punjab went to Jagpal Singh and Jarnail Singh. While Jagpal is a lecturer of political science at SCD College, Ludhiana, Jarnail Singh is Head of the Department of Mathematics at DAV College, Hoshiarpur, and is presently officiating as principal of the college. Besides, Anu Chathrath, Dharinder Tayal, Malwinder Singh Kang, R. K. Sharma, Parbhjit Singh, Rabindernath Sharma, Munish Pal Singh, Kailash Nath Kaul, Surjit Singh Randhawa and D. P. Singh also got elected. So far, the 47 members of the Senate have already been elected and the notification for the same is awaited. In addition, the Punjab Assembly will elect two more members from its MLAs. The executive government of the university—the Syndicate—is elected every year in December by the Senators. The newly elected Senate is likely to meet in the third week of December when the elections to the Syndicate 2009 will also take place.
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Increase the salary, but ensure quality teachers AFTER the Sixth Pay Commission, which recommended a hefty hike for central government staff, it was now the turn of teachers to get the raise. The UGC Pay Review Committee, headed by G.K. Chadha, delivered its promised “decent deal” to the teaching fraternity and has recommended over 70 per cent hike in the pay scale of university teachers. It is indeed a step, which recognises the sheer fact that the investment in education is a prerequisite for the long-term development of society and the nation. Though the hike proposals have come with certain riders (apart from taking general classes, the teachers will have to hold tutorials, guide research and carry out co-curricular activities), but the report is silent on how to recruit the best talent available in the country. Will Chadha’s “decent deal” ensure that the best ones get into the teaching profession to deliver the eulogised role expected from the system for society? In the current scenario, excluding the case of a few institutes or classic universities, getting into a teaching position is becoming easier. Courtesy: political and bureaucratic fervour. It requires just two or three likeminded subject experts to stamp the “choice” of a vice-chancellor or that of some politician or a bureaucrat. And, in the given social set-up, an array of ‘subject experts’ is vying to stamp a ‘choice’ at the cost of the subject or system. Instances of a candidate getting into a university after being rejected for a teaching position in a college are not unknown. Technically, an aspirant to join this profession has to have a postgraduate degree and M.Phil or Ph.D. However, the extent to which these degrees nowadays live up to the standard is debatable. The conditions leading to the scrapping of National Eligibility Test examination for a teaching position implicitly brings a sad testimony to the quality of the output from the institutes of higher education. This test was introduced to maintain the quality check in the teaching profession. But now students who have done a Ph.D or M.Phil are exempted from this test. The test was a good filter to eliminate non-serious candidates and was also helping weed out nepotism from the system. However, the Chadha report is silent on this issue. Now, when a “decent deal” is on the way for teachers, it is high time that strict measures be taken to ensure that transparency prevails at least at the entry level. One cannot be an ostrich to the fact that to get into a bureaucratic set-up, one has to compete at various levels. For instance, to join the Indian Administrative Services, one has to compete at three stages—preliminary examination, main examination and the personality test. In contrast, for a teaching position, it is at times simply the “performance in the interview” that virtually counts. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to develop a mechanism for the selection of lecturers as well. The NET examination should be reintroduced as stage I of the three-stage selection procedure. At the second stage, the aspirant can be asked to take up a series of classroom lectures, where the students will evaluate his performance. The third stage can include the conventional interview with a broader frame to ascertain aspirants’ thinking on issues related with the subject concerned, system and society. Later, the successful candidates should be trained at academic staff colleges. This process will not only provide more respectability to the teachers and teaching profession, but also ensure congenial growth for the system and society.
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Campus Notes A two-day Agricultural Officers' Workshop was held at CCS Haryana Agricultural University here. The workshop was organised by the Directorate of Extension Education of the university. It was attended by agricultural officers and extension workers of the Department of Agriculture, Haryana and university scientists. Vice-Chancellor J.C. Katyal inaugurated the workshop. He called upon scientists and Agriculture Development Officers to launch a campaign for educating farmers at the grassroots level. He said it was the duty of scientists and government officers to encourage farmers to use newer techniques of rabi crop cultivation. Expressing concern over stagnation in the yield of cereal crops, the Vice-Chancellor said the average yield of wheat was stagnant at 42 quintals per hectare while in the case of other crops like raya, it had declined. The Vice-Chancellor said if such a campaign succeeded in achieving an increase of one quintal per hectare, then the state could harness 24 lakh tonnes additional wheat in the ensuing rabi season. This was not a difficult task as this could be achieved easily if farmers maintained soil health and selected good varieties, he said. The Additional Director of Agriculture, Haryana, Dr B.S. Duggal, highlighted the new programmes implemented by the Haryana Government for development of agriculture in the state. He said to help the farmers purchase quality inputs like seed and fertilisers, the government had announced 35 per cent subsidy on several inputs. He said to arrest the decline in soil fertility, the government had also sanctioned subsidy to the tune of 70 per cent of the cost for purchase of gypsum. HAU Director of Research D. B.S. Chhillar presented a report on the research achievements of the university. Dr R.K. Malik, Director of Extension Education and convener of the workshop, highlighted the outcome of extension activities undertaken for the conservation of natural resources and increasing farm production. Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar
House journal launched
'GJUS&T Newsletter', a house journal of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, was released by Dr Devinder Dayal Singh Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor. It highlights the different activities of the university. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sandhu said the newsletter would disseminate valuable information about the university among the faculty, alumni and other universities of the country. The newsletter would also be circulated among corporates to show them the quality of education imparted by the university. Registrar R. S. Jaglan said the newsletter would be a quarterly publication. It would be edited by Manoj Dayal, Naval Kishore and Manbir Godara. The inaugural issue turned out to be a big hit among the students. —
Contributed by Raman Mohan |
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ADMISSION DEADLINE Indian Navy, PO Bag No 02, Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi 110023
www.nausena-bharti.nic.in 10+2 (Technical) Cadet Entry Scheme (Permanent Commission) July 2009 Eligibility: Unmarried Indian males, 10+2 PCM (70%) & English (50%) in Class
10 / 12. DoB: 02 July ‘90 - 01 January ‘93. Selection: SSB Interview; Medical Exam Application Form: Send in prescribed format by ordinary post with all required documents to the above address. Superscribe “APPLICATION FOR 10+2 (TECH) - July 2009 Course Qualification..........., Percentage…………%” on the envelope to the above address. Details: Employment News (04 – 10 October 2008) / Website. Application Deadline: 27 October 2008
Engineering
National Power Training Institute (WR), Badarpur, New Delhi 110044 (M/o Power,
GoI) www.nptibadarpur.co.in Post Diploma in Thermal Power Plant Engineering (1 year) Eligibility: 3-year Diploma in (Mechanical / Electrical / Electronics / Control & Instrumentation Engg) (60%)
Age: 27 years (n 05 January ’09) Selection: Merit Application Form: Send application in prescribed format with required documents, 2 passport size photographs and Rs 500/ - by DD favouring “NPTI,” payable at Badarpur, New Delhi to the Principal Director at the above address / Download from website. Details: Employment News (04 – 10 October 2008) / Website Application Deadline: 07 November 2008 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, Ordnance Factory Campus, Yeddumailaram, Hyderabad 502205 (AP)
www.iith.ac.in PhD Programmes (in Engineering (Chem, Civil, Comp Sc, Elect, Material, Mech) / Sciences (Chem, Math, Phys) / Humanities & Social Sciences (Languages, Psychol, Eco, Mgt) Application Form & Details: Website Application Deadline: 31 October 2008
Finance
University of Delhi, D/o Financial Studies, South Campus, Benito Juarez Road, New Delhi 110021
www.mfc.edu Master of Finance & Control (MFC) (2 years) Eligibility: Bachelors degree (50%) / PG in any discipline (50%) Selection: Admission Test: 18 January ’09 Application Form: Send Rs 750/- by DD favouring “Director, University of Delhi, South Campus,” payable at State Bank of India, New Delhi, with 2 self-addressed slips (2” x 5”) to the Department , Room No 329, Arts Faculty Building at the above address / Download from website. Details: Website Application Deadline: 04 December 2008
— Pervin Malhotra www.careerguidanceindia.com
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