Fortunately/ unfortunately, recently I got a chance to be a part of newly established Degree College in Kashmir. And the timing has been such that it followed my return from the BASE University.
It is with a very heavy heart and regret for the education system and students of the valley that I am penning down each word! Based on my observations in this college, I am generalising the issues to the rest of the colleges in the region after having a word with friends, colleagues and acquaintances that work in other such colleges;
Lack of Administrators
I have been a part of higher education system as a student and later in a number of ways. As such, I know and have a fair idea of most of the senior faculty and professors working in the Kashmir division of the Higher Education Department.
As such, the most capable senior professors, to the best of my knowledge, are heading the already well-established colleges. Promotions on the base of mere seniority have been made, and principal allocations made to these colleges.
The obvious results therefore are the weak administration that most of these colleges are plagued with. The principals are constrained to a little space of office with hardly any a-priori experience of building or running colleges at an administrative level.
Consequently is established the major problem of these new colleges, “weak administration”.
Lack of faculty
I do not take a second thought in writing that these colleges are sailing anchorless in the sea of unknown. In one of the colleges the faculty strength is three. This is the mean number of teachers in the newly established colleges.
In the modern times no one can think of a pre-school with three teachers. And in the newly established colleges the miracle is happening in itself. Introduction of a simple BA course requires the least of ten to twelve specializations in order to make the degree workable.
What is the fun of opening a college and making it operational when it lacks the most basic faculty requirements?!
Hiring the contractual faculty
The most disgusting system of harassing the educated youth and ruining the lives of individuals, most commonly found precisely in this part of the world is the “Contractual/ Academic Arrangement” introduced and used by the higher education department.
This highly skilled (PhDs, PDFs, JRFs & NETs) bunch of people is under-paid and given the second class citizen treatment. At the same time they are paid peanuts and the academic arrangement lasts from April to December each year.
This system ruins the course, wrecks these teachers and destroys the flow of knowledge among the students. It is a total failure and disturbing scenario in itself.
Information asymmetry
These colleges can clearly be defined as headless. There is no proper office staff, no section officer, no IT person; absolutely nothing. In one of the colleges for example a person is hired as “night chaukidaar”.
He is a young man who looks like a junior assistant but does the chores of Section Officer and IT head! It’s disturbing.
He also plays board and other games with the people around! So technically, if anything is to be done or asked for, there is no person, office or authority that one can run up-to. This is a typical alarm bell. How will a college function in this situation?
Catchment area based admission policy
As random as non-random things can be, the admission of students to colleges has been made on the basis of residential area. The class that I taught has some of the most fertile minds but at the same time the most unfortunate.
So curious to learn but facing guidance constraints! While it would be highly beneficial for all students in general and the brightest lot in particular to be sent to a ‘literal’ and established college, all of them can be seen roaming within and outside college! This is one of the most disturbing things in the context.
Thoughtless fund allocation
I asked for a projector and Wi-Fi. It was said that there is one projector but that is safe within the locker. And some weak Wi-Fi is connected to the principal’s chamber which barely reaches the staff-room, nothing for library and not to the classroom in any instance.
At the same time I did see some new carom boards, badminton racket etc. arriving afresh in the campus. It is also a word of certainty that in the previous two years huge chunk of the funds allocated to these colleges individually have lapsed.
Somehow this again resonates back to the problem 1, and beyond!
Limited subject choices
Given the mosaic of paucities faced by these ‘floating colleges of concept’, the subjects that are offered to the students are very limited. While as a student already constrained by the clause of ‘catchment area’ could excel with a certain subject combination, she/he is restricted by the limited subject combinations at the disposal!
Lack of basic facilities
There is no proper socket to plug in the laptop. No adequate space to sit and no person to guard the gate. So, I open the door for myself, halting the traffic in the busy locality around and then I step out to close the door and get back inside the car and park it.
The same steps are done in a reverse order at the end of the day! There is no proper library, and the laboratory can’t be envisioned of. The classrooms are not even basic and there doesn’t exist any space to conduct activities like debates and discussions! Canteen facilities are equally absent…
Modern day welfare states prioritize the growth and development of educational institutions on the top of every other affair. Quite contrary to the intentions of the state government to enhance the college educational system, the operationalization of these new colleges is rapidly proceeding towards major failure.
In light of the uncompromising issues like above, it is a high time to look into the educational system and make the relevant policy interventions in order to enhance the system. The students can’t be put to suffer for the things they never had a say in!
Dhaar Mehak M is an academic from Kashmir)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK