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| Education: quantity expanding, quality doubtful | | | Nirbhay Jammual
Jammu | Dec 24
Teachers on contract and classes without buildings did not come in the way as the year 2007 emerged as an era of taking education to the people's doorsteps.
Till recently while the Colleges have remained a far reaching distance for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the institutions called as Universities were the unseen for a majority. An assessment towards the end of this year shows Colleges mushrooming across the state and the Universities reaching literally to the door steps of the peoples.
While seven full fledged Universities are working in the state, there are also two deemed Universities –the National Institute of Technology and Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences at Srinagar.
While earlier there was norm of having one college in each district with few more in the capital cities, the recent few years saw opening of 22 new colleges in the state. Adding to the ever increasing strength of these institutions of higher learning, the government earlier this month announced opening of 18 more colleges.
Though the higher education expanded quantitatively but the quality still remained a concern. The newly established colleges are in shambles. These colleges don't have even five per cent infrastructure of their own. Most of them are 'functioning' either in rented accommodations or in tin sheds or in the premises of other government schools. The academic and even to some extent the administrative affairs of these newly erected colleges are being managed by contractual staff.
Candidates who opt for contractual services have no security regarding their future prospects and thus remain in a state of chaos and confusion. Under such circumstances, they cannot contribute something positive to the system and these very students have to bear the brunt. Moreover, it has also been observed that the potential candidates prefer to work in their own native areas so that they can escape from the burden of rent and bus charges. This way, they engage themselves after the +2 level itself instead of going to colleges. The remaining lot, which is comparatively less competent, is involved at the college level. To what extent these contractual lecturers can deliver the goods properly, the results are there for anyone to see.
The introduction of postgraduate courses in some colleges of state is nothing more than a misadventure and tantamount to the ruining of the career of these postgraduate students. It takes decades at the university level to establish a full-fledged department and then teach and train the students. But at college level such decisions are taken overnight and this is having a direct bearing over the academic career of the college students.
As we prepare to step into the new year, the higher education system needs a complete overhaul. Among the immediate measures that need to be taken are raising the necessary infrastructure in every college; ending contract teaching; bringing autonomy to both teachers as well as students; bringing transparent in the transfer policy; forming separate directorates for Jammu and Kashmir and that too outside the premises of the secretariat; ending corruption, nepotism and red-tapism, revival of the syllabus and promotions of the lecturers according to the procedure existing in the universities. These measures can prove helpful for our ailing education system at college level and save it from further deterioration. |
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