*Vacancies responsible for high student-teacher ratio
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 26: At a time when much thrust is being given on drastic action to reform higher education system in every nook and corner of the country to raise the quality of education, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has detected numerous deficiencies and gaps in the Higher Education Plan of Jammu and Kashmir. These shortcomings have clearly indicated that those at the helm of affairs in Higher Education Department of the State are most insensitive towards the necessity of carrying out essential reforms in this vital sector.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Human Resource and Development during the appraisal of the Jammu and Kashmir State Higher Education Plan has observed that the expenditure on higher education as a percentage of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) during the years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 was Rs 390.51 crore (0.685%), Rs 518.31 crore (0.786%) and Rs 510.59 crore (0.671%) respectively.
“With regard to the commitment to raise its expenditure on higher education, the State has informed that the matter has been placed before State Planning and Development Department”, sources said quoting the Ministry’s observation, adding “the Ministry has noted that expenditure was not raised despite the fact that this was a commitment of the Government”.
About the vacancy of faculty positions in the colleges, the Ministry has observed, “there was no justification behind allowing large number of positions to remain vacant as there is no ban on recruitments in the State”, adding “currently, the State’s student teacher ratio is high (36:1) but no timeline/plan of action has been specified to fill vacant positions”.
Stating that filling of faculty vacancies was linked with bringing down student-teacher ratio, the Ministry stressed that all steps should be initiated to bring the ratio to the prescribed level of 20:1 and later to 15:1.
As far as accreditation reforms, the Ministry, according to the sources, said, “the data has been provided by the State for 98 Government colleges out of which only 21 have received accreditation grade”, adding “57 colleges have been established by 2006 or before hence completing the six year benchmark but don’t fulfill the accreditation criteria”, adding “these institutions should be taken up on priority basis by the State for accreditation”.
“Similarly, three out of five State Universities don’t fulfill the accreditation criteria and the State needs to submit action plan/timeline according to which it proposes to obtain/apply for their accreditation”, the Ministry said.
Pointing towards the State Higher Education Council, which was first constituted vide Government Order No. 363-HE of 2010 dated October 11, 2010 of the Higher Education Department and then reconstituted vide order dated December 27, 2013, the Ministry said that as per the guidelines, if the Chairman of the Council is not an academician then the Vice-Chairperson should be an eminent academic administrator with proven record in the rank of a Professor.
However, Chief Minister is the Chairperson of the J&K Higher Education Council and Higher Education Minister is Vice-Chairperson as such the State needs to change either the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman in order to ensure compliance of the guidelines, the Ministry stressed, adding “the details of composition and roles are spelt out in the order but the State has not fixed any timeline for the enactment of these provisions”.
The major objective of the State Higher Education Council was to ensure planned and coordinated development of higher education in the State and to foster sharing of resources between universities, benefit from synergy across institutions, lead academic and governance reforms at the institution level, establish principles for funding institutions, maintain a databank on higher education and conduct research and evaluation studies.
Stressing that State should initiate reforms in these areas, the Ministry said, “State Higher Education Plan needs to provide information/plan of action for more financial, academic and administrative autonomy to universities; governing model of the university; transparent and competitive selection of VC; accountability framework and performance indicator of the State and activation of grievance redressal committee etc.
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