Srinagar, Apr 27: Hundreds of students who have done their post-graduation in Mass Communication and Journalism from educational institutions in Kashmir are likely to miss the all-important State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) for lectureship as the subject is yet to be included in it.
 The subject—taught in the University of Kashmir, Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipora, Degree College Varmul, Women’s College MA Road and Islamia College of Science and Commerce—does not figure among the 35 subjects in which the Test is being conducted on August 8. The SLET Nodal Agency, the University of Jammu, is conducting the Test.
 According to the aggrieved students, omitting the subject was a sheer conspiracy against them. “It is a sheer conspiracy against the Kashmiri students. Since the University of Jammu doesn’t have a mass communication department, it is depriving the Kashmiri students a chance to appear in this vital examination,” said a group of aspirants from KU’s Media Education Research Centre (MERC), a 20-year-old Department, offering Masters Degree in Mass Communication and Journalism.
 “If the subject figures among the National Eligibility Test subjects, how can the state deny entry to its citizens in the SLET? It would simply mean that the Government of Jammu and Kashmir wants to deprive Kashmiris’ entry into the lectureship, which is a cherished dream of hundreds of students,” they argued.
 The SLET co-coordinator from JU, Prof Kuldeep Sharma, said the University of Kashmir didn’t ask them to include the subject in SLET. “Nobody has asked us to include the subject in the programme. It is the UGC and state government which has to do it. But had the Media Department at KU sent a proposal to me, I could have placed the same before the Steering Committee, and got the subject included through the state government and UGC,” he said. “Two years back we had pressure from KU to include Islamic Studies and Social Work in the list. We did that. But we were not asked to include mass communication.”
 The KU, however, rebuts Prof Sharma’s argument as ‘unfortunate.’ “The SLET is not something that is held regularly. It is the responsibility of the Nodal Agency, the coordinator, to inform us whether there are any subjects that need be included. Before that it should not go public with the notification. We came to know about the omission of mass communication only after we saw the SLET notification,” said Dr Shahid Rasool, Head of the MERC at KU.
 “We didn’t know that the Noday Agency is intending to hold the SLET. So the coordinator at KU should have informed our Heads of Departments or the Registrar whether any programmes were to be included,” he added.
 Meanwhile, the students have sought the intervention of the KU vice-chancellor, Prof Riyaz Punjabi. “We want to appear in the test. We request the VC to kindly intervene and take the matter up with the JU authorities before the last date, June 7, for receipt of application forms expires,” the students said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST