What is the government upto?
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been fighting against all odds when it comes to education sector. The state is one of the most backward states when we compare the facilities that are available for the students in terms of seeking better education.
The situation is worse in the higher education sector as the state lacks professional degree colleges that could have proved to be an attraction for the students in the state. What is however, making things worse in this crucial sector is the government’s lackadaisical attitude in organizing and encouraging this sector to grow.
The state administration is presently treading the beaten path of announcing new Degree colleges in various regions of the state. Recently, the government announced approval of new 50 degree colleges for the state. The approval has come at a time when the state has already witnessed a dwindling trend of student enrolment in the colleges spread across the state.
The state administration announced 50 more colleges and claimed that the new colleges were announced on public demand as many areas were ‘unserved’ by the higher education department. However, the official report prepared by the higher education department earlier stated that the enrolment in colleges was witnessing a downward trend.
Also, it was stated that only 30 percent of the students after qualifying their class 12th exams join the undergraduate courses in degree colleges due to which the enrolment in the colleges is witnessing a decreasing trend.
Notably, the state administrative council approved new 50 colleges for the state last week. The colleges were approved at a time when the recently approved 52 colleges are yet to be made functional.
The 52 colleges sanctioned earlier have not been made functional as in most of the colleges the land is yet to be identified for carrying out construction works for building the college campuses.
As per norms, the department first identifies the land which is followed by the approval of the college for the location in the area. But surprisingly, the governor administration is approving colleges without identification of land or location for carrying out the construction.
Out of the already existing colleges, the state has 23 degree colleges without permanent campus exposing the laxity of the government in providing proper accommodation to the students. These colleges were approved under various schemes more than eight years ago.
The government should have taken a cue from the failures it has experienced over the years and instead of announcing new colleges it should have preferred to strengthen the existing colleges by upgrading the infrastructure and introducing new courses for students.
The administration needs to rethink over its decision and the resources that will be invested in creating these new 50 colleges should be utilized to enhance the quality of education in the already functional colleges in the state. Besides, more job oriented and professional courses should be encouraged at the graduate level so that student enrolment witnesses an increase.
KV Network
