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| Oxford of South Asia: Where are JU’s outer campuses? | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu Apr 28: The University of Jammu has long been claiming an identity of Oxford of South Asia with education of peoples’ doorstep in Jammu region but people are looking for the addresses of its outer campuses which apparently have been lost in the oblivion of negligence and red-tape.
Between the political upheavals and the apathy of the authorities the students of the far flung areas in the state continue to struggle for realizing their fundamental right to education. Around a couple of years ago during the Gulahm Nabi Azad led coalition government and in the tenure of Prof. Amitabh Matoo as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu the University inaugurated number of remote campuses with a great pump and show in Bhadarwah, Reasi, Poonch, Udhampur and Kathua but as the hype is over it all seems to be a fiction for the residents of most of these areas.
Out of the five remote campuses inaugurated couple of years back it is a matter of surprise that only Bhadarwah campus has some decent infrastructure along with an allotted land by the State government till date. The other four campuses seem to be more like a formality as till date they are run in rented accommodations and without any proper infrastructure and faculty.
The Poonch campus has been run in one room at the Government Degree College running only a vocational e-learning course and without any permanent faculty member. The Ramnagar Campus provides is also run in the rented accommodation in the Government Degree College offers MA Sociology and MCA without a proper Computer lab for last two years it is only few days back that the campus has received around 15 computers for the lab. Further the two rooms earlier allotted for the MCA classes have been partitioned to accommodate the MA Sociology students. The whole of the Ramnagar campus is dependent upon the non experienced adhoc faculty and even the guest faculty has stopped visiting the campus due to non payment of dues. The situation of the Reasi campus is also no good whereas the Kathua campus till date have been run in the premises of a private B.Ed. college providing the Masters of Business Administration. No doubt the University of Jammu has made an attempt to reach the un-reached but has the university compromised on the quality of education for the purposes of pleasing the bureaucrats and politicians.
All the remote campuses has been most run by the adhoc teachers which clearly points out a question that where the students from such business schools will be placed after completing their studies from such institutes. It seems to be more like to give the students of these regions fake expectations and play with their future. According to Harsh Dev Singh the former Minister for Education these campuses reflect the abuse of position and authority by the then Chief Minister of the State and now the University authorities does not seem to be serious about these campuses as no action has been witnessed by the new Vice Chancellor for these campuses. Further even it is a matter of surprise that the new Vice Chancellor has not even visited the remote campuses other than the Bhadarwah campus till date to review the conditions over their.
The UGC team which recently visited the University of Jammu was also taken only to the Bhadarwah campus. As such the Bhadarwah Campus is the only show case JU claims credit of while the fact is that this campus came up due to the personal interest of the then CM for his electoral constituency. But the MLA for Poonch, Aijaz Jan is optimistic about the future of the campus at Poonch as the land for the Poonch campus has been identified and values around Rs. 54 lacs but awaits the final approval of the government which may be granted after the current elections.
The University authorities till date have completely transferred the responsibility for the delay in the development of these campuses on the State government for not providing the land for the campuses but a very eminent question remains unanswered is that what was the need for the JU to start remote campuses if there was no infrastructure? Should not have the JU authorities waited for the infrastructure to be established first? The campuses which no doubt seems to be inaugurated haphazardly have raised high expectations of the people of these areas but the government and the university authorities need to put sincere effort to keep the expectation of the people alive in the system and not to set another precedent of fake promises for political benefits and mileages.
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