The public spending on education sector in the state of J&K has not been so encouraging and most of the educational institutions are without basic infrastructural facilities. The structural adjustment programmes emphasizing reduction in public expenditure largely because of budget deficits have taken its toll on all sectors including health and education in our state resulting in poor infrastructural facilities. Though the health and educational sectors have been prioritized for government, yet sufficient funds are not made available for upkeep of these institutions of public importance.
In the context of education whether primary, higher or teacher training courses, advocacy of private financing has become increasingly inevitable while the measures for effective cost recovery and private investment too have emerged as an accepted tool. The private sector financing in educational sector rather becomes -'State policy' as this sector can overwhelmingly add to the economic fabric of our state. Such policies or measures which can strangulate or gag the private sector participation in education must be done away with. Rather some eminent economists of the state in the past have suggested that the &K state especially Kashmir Valley be declared as destination for educational pursuits. For achieving such objectives, there is great need to invest in infrastructural imperatives which can come from private sector only, as the state exchequer is under pressure to restrain public spending on various vital public welfare programmes as the salary budget of its employees leaves hardly any room for taking in hand the investment plans to upgrade the ailing educational sector of the state. Such a fiscal deficit environment should prompt the government to search for alternative sources other than the public treasury.
The acknowledgement of need by the state to attract private investment to cater to the demand of Teacher Training courses like B. Ed/M. Ed and ETT etc, many private institution across the state have been established. These private educational institutions have been able to fulfill the private demand for teacher training courses in absence of the capacity of the state to do so. It is these institutions that have made education in teacher training courses accessible to a sizeable section of the society. This existence of a good number of private institutions and high involvement in private sector had been able not only to save public sector resources but these institutions contributed significantly in improving the fragile economic set up of the state. But for sometime a sustained campaign against these private institutions has been undertaken. Truth has been distorted to the extent that the lies were accepted as truth because the misperceptions have not been answered properly. The correctness of a proposition cannot be ascertained without actual evidence of truth.
Certain people seem to be hell bent to destroy the teacher training courses run by private sector. They spread venom without knowing the realities on ground. The underperformance by one or few is portrayed as a general behavior. There is an earnest need to understand that the standard of performance to run any educational institutions is set by the expert committees in the government. Besides setting these standards the government has also established an inspection mechanism to gauge the performance of these institutions and the system is followed vigorously with precision. These private run colleges are subjected to stern supervision by the affiliating agencies.
Nevertheless, if we compare the performance of privately run teacher training colleges with other institutions, we come to conclude that the percentage of success is far better than the ones being run by the Govt. Just look at the fate of government run schools or colleges; under performance almost at all levels. How many are satisfied with the performance of the government run educational institutions in the state! Contrary to this the contribution of the private educational institutions is significant. The economic aspect of its contribution towards state economy is also immense. The management of private colleges in their pursuit of excellence in the field of academics have in the process created opportunities and jobs for a large number of educated and qualified people. May it be worthwhile to express that teacher training colleges are not receiving any kind of grant or aid from the Govt., Instead they generate their own resources.
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Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
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