The State Education Department is in total disarray. The mushrooming of unauthorized colleges in the state is a brazen manifestation of the bad functioning of the department.  Most of these colleges are simply to make huge money. The number of private colleges during past twenty years has multiplied manifold. Of   249 private colleges set up in the state , 172 are in Jammu province and 77 in Kashmir. Some of these colleges are offering professional and educational courses. Coming up of more institutions with quality education more particularly in science, technology and management is a welcome development. Nevertheless, for the failure of the state education department some fake educational institutions were functioning in Srinagar with impunity.   Many students were duped and career of many others spoiled.  Most of the private colleges set up in Kashmir are catering to students seeking Bachelor of Education Degree to students from outside the state. Hardly any private college in the state is offering vocational education or training students in entrepreneurship that would help them in finding jobs. The stories are galore about the low quality of education in some of the private institution. Many times question marks are put on the conduct of examinations in these colleges.    Though late, yet the decision of scrutinizing the credentials of private colleges is a good move provided it does not suffer inertia and corruption. It is not only the working of the private colleges that needs to be scrutinized but there is need for making a total appraisal of the education department. There can be no denying that since 1947, the number of schools in the state has multiplied thousands of times and schools have been established in remotest areas of the state. But, it is sad that the roll of students in the government run schools has declined by about seventy percent and there are some classical examples where the teachers outnumber the students. It is not increasing number of private schools that has caused fall in the rolls of government schools but the bad administration in the education departments. It is worst example of personnel management,  teachers are not posted in schools as per need but on the whims and fancies of MLAs and ministers.  Both, the school and higher education call for total revamping.     

Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 13 Nov 2012 00:00:00 IST