The Higher Education Department (HED) has been going through crises for the past two years over the appointment of the academic arrangements in degree colleges. The issue has taken a toll on the academics and overall functioning of the institutions given the dearth of academic staff in the colleges.
Unfortunately, instead of doing away with the chaos and the ongoing mess, the authorities kept the issue lingering, apparently to soothe their ego. With the passage of time, it has turned into an battle of ego rather than a routine annual exercise of contractual appointment in colleges.
Going by the facts, it all started in July 2019 when the HED announced summer vacation for the degree colleges in Valley. A month later, all the educational institutions remained closed for a period of over six months post abrogation of Article 370 from the constitution of India.
Later the HED denied salary to the academic arrangements for the closure period saying that their services were not utilized during the closure period. The then secretary HED Talat Parvez Ruhella categorically said the department will not provide salary to the academic arrangement for the closure period.
Later, the department made one more controversial announcement and termed the academic arrangements as need base employees. The move aggravated the highly qualified academic arrangements that were hired by HED for different colleges in 2019.
As the time passed by, the HED as a routine decided to hire a new lot of academic arrangement but the issue landed in the judiciary as the candidates who were working in the colleges approached J&K High Court and got a status quo for their position leaving the department in a catch 22 situation.
Later, the appointment of academic arrangements became a messy state of affairs as the department could neither go ahead with the appointment of new academic arrangements nor could they properly present their case in the judiciary. With the result, the issue is still lingering with both the parties – HED and candidates with status quo busy satisfying their egos. The routine annual exercise which was in vogue for years together has now become a clash of ego. The move has adversely hit the academics in the colleges, ultimately leaving students at the receiving end.
While the department is yet to settle the issue in the judiciary, the new batches of PhD holders and NET qualified candidates are persistently demanding the HED to start fresh recruitment saying that the candidates who have occupied the positions in colleges on Court orders were not at par with them.
But the department is yet to resolve the issue and go ahead with the fresh recruitment of qualified ones, for academic arrangements on contract basis.
It is also a fact that more than 1000 posts of assistant professors are lying vacant in the degree colleges for which the department needs to hire people on academic arrangement in the colleges to overcome the dearth of teaching staff.
Over the past few years, the HED received massive funding from the Government of India as well as its annual allocation from the UT budget for different interventions in colleges. But the department has procured equipment in crores for the colleges which is gathering dust for the past year. There is no manpower in colleges to take care of these equipment.
Government Degree College Anantnag is a case in point. The college has procured equipment worth crores for the journalism department alone. But the department has no faculty to take care of the equipment. Same is the situation with the majority of the departments in different colleges across the Valley.
The situation has risen only because of the tussle between the government and the candidates who got status quo to continue on these positions in the colleges. Instead of coming out of the mess, the government is making the situation murkier by delaying its solution.
While the KU affiliated Degree College continue to suffer due to the dearth of teaching staff, the constituent colleges of the Cluster University Srinagar have somehow managed to recruit the academic arrangements for the current academic session.
Meanwhile, after a lull of around two years, J&K HED advertised a notification under order No. 58- JK (HED) of 2021 dated February 25 of 2021 for the engagement of academic arrangement candidates in Kashmir division colleges for the session 2021.
The candidates submitted the applications following which the department issued a merit list which was uploaded on the Website of Government College for Women, M R Road Srinagar.
On May 07, a notification was issued by the nodal principal of Kashmir colleges wherein the candidates were informed about their counseling scheduled from 08.
Surprisingly, the counseling was deferred a day after the notification was issued by the Nodal College leaving the P.hD and NET qualified candidates in a state of despair.
The sequence of events apparently hints that all is not well in the higher education department. After three months since the notification was issued, the department is unnecessarily delaying the recruitment of academic arrangements.
The academic arrangements are hired to compensate for the dearth of teaching staff in the colleges but it has been observed that every year the issue somehow lands in the judiciary after the recruitment notification is issued. The issue of the status quo of college contractuals has been lingering since the last 10 years.
The issue landed in the judiciary after the contractual lecturers demanded job policy after being hoodwinked by some ministers in the previous regimes about regularizing their services.
It is also a fact that the candidates who demand regularization of their services submit their affidavit duly signed by the Magistrate wherein it is stated that they will not claim for any job policy on the basis of their recruitment as college contractual.
While the higher education department is yet to come out of the mess, the delay in recruitment of academic arrangements has closed the doors for the meritorious candidates. The candidates with doctorate degrees, NET qualified, and having publications under their belt are without jobs.
It will not be wrong to say that the status quo has blocked their way to enter into the academics and such type of recruitment policy has put the education system in peril, with the future of hundreds of highly qualified youth at stake.
The government should on priority clear the mess and go ahead with the fresh recruitment or hold the counseling of the candidates who have already applied for the posts in colleges.
The government needs to overhaul the system so that the present chaotic situation in degree colleges is over. It will pave way for the healthy and strong academic scenario besides providing job opportunities to the highly qualified youth.
Let the department not be hijacked by vested interest at the cost of the career of the thousands of undergraduate students enrolled in colleges. If any such move is allowed by the authorities, it will have disastrous consequences which will be beyond repair.