EDUCATION

CAMPUS
Teachers in a tizzy over UGC directive on appointments
Gaurav Choudhury

The new academic session in Delhi University has finally got under way with students getting down to the more serious business of attending classes. However, with barely a week having passed in the new session, teachers are already a disappointed lot. The cause of consternation this time round is a directive issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the nodal authority of universities in the country, which stipulates some kind of “moratorium” be applied on appointment of teachers in colleges.

In a communication to college principals, the UGC has directed that 80 per cent of all vacant posts should be filled on a temporary basis for three months.

The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA), however, has said that there is no mention of such a 22-hour workload in the actual UGC regulation that instead clearly states that “no teacher shall be expected to lecture/discussion for more than three clock hours per day”.

The teachers’ association said the restriction of 80 per cent on appointments against vacant posts and only for a period of three months threatens to jeopardise the teaching-learning process and the entire academic programme of the colleges. “Apart from the teachers, the students admitted to the colleges will be the ultimate victims”, DUTA said.

What, however, is a matter of concern is that the if the spat continues to blow up, the students will be ultimate sufferers.

For second year and third year students, the long cumbersome process of applying for revaluation of their answer sheets is another nervous waiting game. There have been instances in previous years, where students have filed for revaluation on being declared as failed in the first instance. When eventually the results were declared after revaluation, they were declared as passed, but only some time in January when the new session was already in its third and final term. For such students, the joy of passing was overshadowed by myriad other problems, such as meeting attendance requirements, as they were not eligible to attend classes according to their earlier results.

IGNOU takes the cake

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU’s) course material is now being sought by open universities as well as conventional universities from abroad.

Recently, the Open University of Nigeria has made a request to allow them to adapt 80 courses and Keneyata University, Nairobi, Kenya has made similar request for 100 courses. New proposals for tie-ups with the police, the paramilitary forces and service sectors are at different stages of approval. UNESCO has desired to collaborate with IGNOU as the nodal agency for replicating some of the best models and practices in other developing countries.

In addition to providing higher education to masses in the country, IGNOU has taken the initiative of extending its programmes in other developing countries as well as to large number of expatriate and non-resident Indians.

At present, IGNOU is offering professional as well as other degree programmes in 21 countries in the Gulf, Indian Ocean Islands, South Asia and Africa, in countries such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, Doha, Muscat, Kuwait, Mauritius, the Maldives, Seychelles, Singapore, Lesotho, Swaziland, Jamaica, Belize, Namibia, Ethiopia, Liberia and Madagascar.

Justice for SCs

The Forum of Academics for Social Justice, an organisation devoted to the cause of the uplift of Dalits has given a memorandum to the President, pleading with him to take some “serious steps” to implement the SC/ST reservation policy for teaching posts in colleges and universities.

According to its Chairman, Mr Hansraj Suman, and the General Secretary, Dr P. D. Sahare, even after more than 50 years of the adoption of the Constitution no government has shown any seriousness in implementing the provisions for SCs/STs and deprived them of their rightful dues. Particularly, in central and deemed universities it has been flouted openly, showing total apathy towards them.

The forum has called for the institution of a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of a retired judge to ensure fair justice, which will serve as a common platform to monitor the reservation policy in the country. It may include representatives from the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the National SC/ST Commission, the UGC, Vice-Chancellors and Professors among others.

IT for schoolkids

“NIIT’s programmes for schools and colleges aim at providing the right blend of theory and practice to master new technologies and programming languages. Designed to complement the formal school and college curriculum, these programme offers the students an opportunity to improve IT skills”, Senior Vice- President Head of NIIT’s Education Business, Mr Pradeep Narayanan, said.

Learn & earn

As part of this apprenticeship programme students attend classes from 8 am to 11 am after which they work with leading companies of their respective fields for a maximum of six hours, five days a week.

TASMAC degree

Training and Advanced Studies in Management and Communications (TASMAC) has acquired validation from University of Wales, UK, to offer one year in M. Sc (Information Systems) degree programme at its campus in Pune, India. This announcement follows the validation to TASMAC last year to offer the University of Wales MBA and BBA programmes.

The M. Sc (Information Systems) curriculum is designed to prepare students to plan, organise, manage, design, configure and implement information systems using state-of-the-art technologies, methods, techniques and tools.

The programme is designed on a competency model. The student progresses through several tiers of modules, acquiring more complex skills and knowledge to understand, evaluate, and implement information systems. The programme blends theory and practice into a learning experience that develops skills applicable to real-world problems.

Books by Roy Bhaskar

Sage Publications has launched The Bhaskar Series, a compilation of three new books — “Meta-Reality”, “From Science to Emancipation”, and “Reflections on Meta-Reality”— by post-modernist philosopher and thinker Ram Roy Bhaskar.

Building on radically new analysis of the self, human agency and society, Roy Bhaskar shows how alienation and crisis in the world we currently inhabit is sustained by the ground-state qualities of intelligence, creativity, love, a capacity for right action and potential for human self-realisation or fulfilment.

Ram Roy Bhaskar was born in London in 1944 of an Indian father and an English mother. Since 1967 he has taught and lectured on philosophy and adjacent subjects at the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, City University, London, the University of Sussex and universities and institutes of higher education throughout the world.

In 1995 he retired from full-time teaching to concentrate on setting up the Centre for Critical Realism (CCR) and the International Association of Critical Realism (IACR).

Critical acclaim for his published works has been consistent from his very first book, “A Realist Theory of Science”. His recent works include “The Possibility of Naturalism”, “Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation”, “Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom” and “From East to West”.

NCERT bid to streamline textbook distribution
Smriti Kak

New Delhi, July 24
After the schools and the students crying themselves hoarse over the non-availability of textbooks, it is now the turn of retailers to protest.

To deal with the “non-availability of texts,” the NCERT has made it mandatory for its wholesale agents to sell books to retailers in their respective areas. The equitable distribution of books to the hand-picked retailers, it is being hoped, will help alleviate the shortage. “We have told wholesale agents to sell books to only those retailers who fall in their area. Now, the retailers will not have to travel long distances and will be able to procure the books easily”, said the Head of Publication Division at NCERT, Prof. Puran Chand.

Earlier wholesalers could sell books only to retailers who were members of the Pustak Vikreta Hitkari Sangh. But now it has been decided that even non-members can purchase books from wholesalers in their respective areas.

Sources claim that the current crisis will blow over as only authorised book retailers will be able to purchase books. It is alleged that some agents from outside the Capital purchase their stock here and thus jeopardise the stock position in Delhi. These agents buy books in the Capital and sell them in their home state, thus making a killing and also causing a shortage in Delhi.

“We have three Regional Production-cum-Development Centres (RPDCs) in three cities of Kolkatta, Allahabad and Bangalore. We dispatch books to these centres which, in turn, are responsible for the distribution of books in those states. As for those who buy books in the Capital and sell them outside, this has to stop immediately”, Prof. Puran Chand added.

The retailers, meanwhile, are a happy lot. “We are happy that the NCERT has resolved the crisis by directing the wholesalers to sell books to authorised retailers. This has ensured smooth distribution of books. We are also happy that the children have finally got their books”, said, Mr. S S Bhalla, President of the Retailers association. He went on to add: “There are many shopkeepers who have other business, but at this time of the year switch over to selling books. They purchase the books at lower costs and after enclosing them in plastic covers, sell them for a profit. This causes a huge loss to the book retailers. These unscrupulous elements need to be weeded out of the business”. While both the NCERT and the booksellers are unanimous that distribution of books needs to be equitable, what remains to be seen is how they manage to keep the corrupt elements at bay.

COURTS

‘Technology-driven courts for speedy justice’ 
Our Correspondent

New Delhi, July 24
Overburdened judiciary and the consequent delay in the conclusion of cases has for long been a cause for worry. To counter this phenomenon, there is a need for the evolution of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) was what emerged as the solution from a daylong seminar at the Amity Law School.

Terming the prevalent alternatives disputes redressal mechanisms like the arbitrators, mediators, Lok Adalat and the conciliators as ineffective, luminaries from the legal world called for harnessing of technological advances to speed up the judicial process in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice M. Kathu, Judge, Allahabad High Court, said, “There is a crying need for fast and effective Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and even the new Arbitration Act, 1996, has not been very effective and there is a dire need for change. Many arbitrators, who are people who retired from high offices are seen to be conducting themselves shamelessly”.

He added, “People have devised an alternative dispute redressal mechanism-the mafia-instead of waiting around for justice to be imparted”.

The seminar was titled, ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution to Online Dispute Resolution’. ODR is used internationally for different forms of online dispute settlements by means of ADR methods. ODR augments existing ADR mechanisms. Its importance is based on the assumption that certain disputes can also be resolved promptly and efficiently using the Internet. ODR offers advantages of speed, reduced costs, greater convenience and accessibility.

Justice A.K. Sikri, Judge, High Court, Delhi, said, “Technology -driven courts to do away with the cumbersome bureaucratic procedures that hamper speedy justice are the need of the hour.”

The seminar was inaugurated by Mr Lalit Bhasin, working president, ADR. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. N Vijayaditya, Director General, NIC, Ministry of Information Technology.