Shillong, Sept. 25: College teachers in Meghalaya today said new universities and educational institutions in the state were not “committed to academics” and take pride only in the placement of their “products” in business houses.
K.D. Ramsiej, president of the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association, while delivering the presidential address at the 29th general conference of the association at Shillong College here, said new hoardings of self-styled universities were mushrooming in the city.
“How they obtained permission and recognition must be a matter of public concern since these are driven by market dynamics and not by academics,” Ramsiej said.
He said it did not require much effort to understand that these fledgling universities or institutions were “uncommitted” to academic pursuits. “They strongly vouch for business houses and take pride only in placement of their products in business houses and certainly not in the academic profession,” he added. “With education becoming a trillion dollar business, many are projecting themselves as reformers of education,” he said.
Ramsiej said education in the country was going through a period of transition and the policies and programmes that guided the transition were a bundle of contradictions. “While the basic vision promotes inclusive development by expanding access, equity and excellence, the strategies being adopted to realise these objectives seem to move away from the declared mission,” he said.
Apart from the North Eastern Hill University, Meghalaya is also home to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science, the Indian Institute of Management, the National Institute of Fashion Designing, the Indian Institute of Hotel Management and the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages. A National Institute of Technology is also being set up at Sohra (Cherrapunjee).
In the last five years, the education department has given permission to six private universities to open campuses in the state. These include the Martin Luther Christian University, ICFAI University, William Carey University, Techno Global University, University of Science and Technology and the CMJ University. The private universities have come up between 2005 and last year.
The directorate of higher and technical education has prepared the draft Meghalaya Private University Regulation, 2008. The main purpose of the proposed Private University Regulation is to ensure that such universities maintain standards as per the specified guidelines of the UGC, AICTE, BCI, MCI, DCI, PCI and NCTE so that quality education is imparted.
The Union minister of state for water resources, Vincent H. Pala, was present during the inaugural function.
Uranium mining
Pala today said the Centre would not put any pressure on the Meghalaya government in relation to the proposed uranium mining project in West Khasi Hills district.
“The Centre will not go ahead with the proposed uranium mining in the state until it gets consent from the common people,” he said.
The Shillong MP also said he had taken a social organisation leader of the state, who is spearheading the anti-uranium movement, to meet Union minister of state for science and technology, Prithviraj Chavan, in Delhi to clarify the Centre’s stand on the contentious uranium mining issue. “During the meeting, Chavan assured that the Centre would not use any force for implementing the Kylleng-Pyndensohiong-Mawthabah (KPM) project,” Pala said.
The Centre had recently sanctioned Rs 1,219 crore for the 282km-long two-lane Shillong-Nongstoin-Rongjeng-Tura road, he added.
