Higher education on crutches in J&K Colleges being run in schools with adhoc faculty In a sorry state of affairs, all the newly opened Government Degree Colleges in Jammu and Kashmir are being run from temporary accommodation with majority of adhoc faculty. The temporary arrangements are badly affecting the higher education as students in these colleges are not getting popular subjects in demand. Lack of permanent faculty as well as own buildings have limited these colleges to offer subjects of only Arts stream. According to the official sources in Higher Education Department, all the Government Degree Colleges sanctioned under State Plan or Prime Minister’s Special Package since 2008, are functioning either from school complexes or private accommodations of a few rooms. Even as the work has been started for building construction of a few colleges, a number of them are still awaiting acquisition of land as the Government is facing certain hiccups in identifying suitable land for the same, sources further informed. The situation can be gauged from the fact that Government Degree College Ploura, which was sanctioned and made functional in 2008, is still being run from Old Campus of Jammu University near GGM Science College as the Government failed to identify suitable land for the same till last year when a piece of evacuee property land was finally selected for the acquisition near Bhalwal. Same is the case with Government Degree College Chatru and a few other colleges, sanctioned in 2008, which are still waiting for acquitting of the land, sources added. As maximum of these colleges are still in the process of land acquisition while building construction work has just begun in case of a few, these institutions of higher education are understood to function from the schools or small rented accommodations for the next few years, sources explained. Pertinent to mention that Jammu Kashmir got 18 Government degree colleges in 2008 while 23 more were sanctioned in 2011 under State Plan and Prime Minister’s Special Package. These colleges started functioning within an year since their sanctioning. Among these colleges, work has been stated for construction of the building on a few colleges sanctioned in 2008, which include GDC Buddhal, GDC Nowshera, Bani, Kalotrian, etc while others, including all the 23 sanctioned in 2011, are still in the process of getting land. Similar is the position in respect of faculty in these colleges, which are being run on `Academic Arrangement’ basis. Majority of faculty in maximum of such colleges, which have been sanctioned a strength of ten for each, is engaged on contractual basis for an academic year. When contacted, the Minister for Higher education Mohd Akbar Lone admitted that the Government was facing certain hiccups in acquisition of land for some newly opened colleges. “In certain cases, where the Government land was not available for the college building, we are left with no option other than to purchase private land, which usually causes delay owing to compensation amount and legal issues”, he said. Regarding the faculty, Mr Lone informed that the Government has already referred 1200 posts of Assistant Professors to Public Service Commission which had also initiated the process by inviting applications but the same was stayed on court direction after some objections were raised over eligibility criteria. “However, these colleges would soon get their own building and other infrastructure besides regular faculty as the Government is serious for quality education,” he claimed.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 03:55:52 +0000
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