WE THE PEOPLE
Poor Infrastructure and Contractualism Eating Into the Vitals of Higher Education System in Kashmir
Hence People urge Govt to equip them with requisite necessities to remain functional to meet demands of students
By: Mirror News service
Srinagar: No other Sector is as important as Education as it widens the horizon and opens a broad canvas to move ahead and enables one to go deep into unexplored areas of Nature. Thus education plays a very important role in our lives. Everyone has been educated since the day they were born. There is a rapidly growing demand for a higher education in the world today. As the avenues of better employment are directly linked to quality Higher Education, so the J&K State government some four years ago announced setting up of 22 new Degree Colleges in different parts of the State under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan or the Grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The colleges had to be established in different parts of the state which lack institutes of higher education.
But after four years most of these Colleges are without any standard infrastructure, operating from rented buildings and without any proper staff. Pertinently, Academicians and Experts had criticized the hasty decision of establishing new Colleges at a time when the already established colleges lacked proper staff and infrastructure. The decision of setting these colleges was also criticized for its political overtones as the legislators managed to seek colleges for their own constituencies irrespective of whether they deserved it or not.
Today on ground zero, newly established Colleges are in shambles. These Colleges don’t have even twenty per cent infrastructure of their own. Most of them are ‘functioning’ either in rented accommodations or in tin sheds or in the premises of other government departments. The academic and even to some extent the administrative affairs of these newly established Colleges are being managed by contractual staff.
The example of Government Degree College, Bijbehra bears an apt epitome to the above mentioned grave facet. The college was established in 2006.This college at a given time has to cater to needs of about 1500 students, but ironically it runs from a rented house with just seven rooms. The laboratory facilities are absent and library has very few books. Only Humanities stream is taught here. Overcrowding and bedlam are the permanent features.
"The college portrays a very bad picture as it lacks basic infrastructure. We don't possess a quality library and just one stream is taught here. We face problem of overcrowding and it is very painful to admit that we do not have bathroom facilities and are getting educated from a rented house .The wisdom of planners to set new colleges comes under question when one sees the plight of Bijbehra Degree college", Says Avid Ahmad, a students of Bijbehra College.
In fact, in almost all the newly established Colleges, very few subjects are taught and their is no diversification of streams in these colleges.The Berrwah Degree college established three years ago is also presenting the same appalling picture as the college lacks basic infrastructure. The story with other newly established colleges is also not much different as they are also in shambles.
Hence People urge Govt to equip them with requisite necessities to remain functional to meet demands of students. Putting students like flock of cattle and denying basic facilities affects quality of education in a big way.(To be continued)
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