I have no idea whose brilliant idea it was to introduce orientation and refresher courses for lecturers and Assistant Professors. This is mandatory for promotion through the Career Advancement Scheme. Since open posts are far and few and subjected to many rules and regulations and departments use this to get new faculty, most of the existing faculty seek promotion through the Career Advancement Scheme.
This year I am coordinating the refresher course and I feel pity for the participants. Most of them have not done Ph.D. and have no idea about research work. The ones who have done Ph.D. take it as just a job. One of the participants told me that her working hours are from 9 to 1.30 pm. Then she rectified. It is from 9 to 1.25pm. You know that she watches the clock and bolts from the college the moment the clock says 1.25 pm.
Most of the teachers teach the way they were taught. They are not interested in innovation or learning more or thinking of ways to get the concept across. Their own concepts are unclear and unsure but what to do ? The refresher course is just a paperwork to be completed. If it was meant to enhance their knowledge, it does not do it. If it is meant to motivate them it completely fails in that too for they do not really care.
It is in this background I am appalled that the HRD is contemplating a Central Universities Act to bind all the Central Universities together. I am told that this was the brainchild of the previous government and the present one is just going on with it.
There are two core aspects to the Act. One is that there will be faculty mobility across Central Universities a la Kendriya Vidyalaya. In school it used to be fun. Suddenly a teacher would be transferred and if the teacher happened to be unpopular there would be joyous eruption. We would also get new teachers and that too was fun. We would watch out for transfers. But in Universities it ceases to be fun. What are we supposed to do with our research labs? And our research students? Do the bureaucrats and the minister have any idea what a science research lab is like? Just the mention of pension mobility makes no sense. That is not what we science teachers are worried about. Of course if the Minister wants us to close our research activity I have no problem. Given that none of the funding agencies are releasing money and the University does not give us any research fund, we are already in the process of shutting down research. We will just hasten the process.
The other aspect is that of Credit Choice. Ideally, it is a neat concept provided that the student has a wide choice of courses to opt for. The reality is that in most of the colleges, the department is run with handful of people who are already overwhelmed and burdened with courses, corrections, lab practicals. Who is going to go out of the way to offer an optional? And how can they offer if they do not do any research? What are they going to teach?
I do not think the Minister or the babus have any idea what they are doing to higher education. But why should they? Most of them send their children abroad and Universities and Colleges are for only those who do not have the means to go abroad to get an education.
This year I am coordinating the refresher course and I feel pity for the participants. Most of them have not done Ph.D. and have no idea about research work. The ones who have done Ph.D. take it as just a job. One of the participants told me that her working hours are from 9 to 1.30 pm. Then she rectified. It is from 9 to 1.25pm. You know that she watches the clock and bolts from the college the moment the clock says 1.25 pm.
Most of the teachers teach the way they were taught. They are not interested in innovation or learning more or thinking of ways to get the concept across. Their own concepts are unclear and unsure but what to do ? The refresher course is just a paperwork to be completed. If it was meant to enhance their knowledge, it does not do it. If it is meant to motivate them it completely fails in that too for they do not really care.
It is in this background I am appalled that the HRD is contemplating a Central Universities Act to bind all the Central Universities together. I am told that this was the brainchild of the previous government and the present one is just going on with it.
There are two core aspects to the Act. One is that there will be faculty mobility across Central Universities a la Kendriya Vidyalaya. In school it used to be fun. Suddenly a teacher would be transferred and if the teacher happened to be unpopular there would be joyous eruption. We would also get new teachers and that too was fun. We would watch out for transfers. But in Universities it ceases to be fun. What are we supposed to do with our research labs? And our research students? Do the bureaucrats and the minister have any idea what a science research lab is like? Just the mention of pension mobility makes no sense. That is not what we science teachers are worried about. Of course if the Minister wants us to close our research activity I have no problem. Given that none of the funding agencies are releasing money and the University does not give us any research fund, we are already in the process of shutting down research. We will just hasten the process.
The other aspect is that of Credit Choice. Ideally, it is a neat concept provided that the student has a wide choice of courses to opt for. The reality is that in most of the colleges, the department is run with handful of people who are already overwhelmed and burdened with courses, corrections, lab practicals. Who is going to go out of the way to offer an optional? And how can they offer if they do not do any research? What are they going to teach?
I do not think the Minister or the babus have any idea what they are doing to higher education. But why should they? Most of them send their children abroad and Universities and Colleges are for only those who do not have the means to go abroad to get an education.
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