I
Sir,
This refers to the editorial ‘Mushrooming B.Ed. Colleges’ (DE, Aug23, 2014). It is fact that education is a powerful instrument of social change and for providing quality education to the students,it is essential that the teachers, who are called the ‘Nation Builders’, should be well trained and highly motivated. But what will become of that education,where teachers donot attend classes to learn the basic skills of teaching and be familiar with the latest techniques of teaching to groom themselves as efficient and successful teachers. For pursuing the B.Ed. Course,the skills and training matter much more than the quantum of knowledge possessed by a prospective teacher.What is required on the part of the teacher is to convey knowledge to the students in an effective and easily assimilable manner and develop skills in the students which should stand them in good stead in their life.But this is not possible if the teacher is himself ill-equipped and wanting in such professional skills.
The fact that the Inspection Team deputed by the the Jammu University to make a field study of B.Ed.Colleges affiliated to the University found that there was less than 20% admitted strength in the colleges and in some others there was not even a single student present in the classroom, should serve as eyeopener to the University authorities, intelligentia, policy makers and the public in general as to where our education system is heading for.Reducing the no.of seats alloted to the defaulting colleges as punitive measure initiated by the University is welcome but the sponsors of these colleges may be served a warning in clear terms that colleges should aim at producing skilled and well trained teachers and not serve as money minting machines only and that any compromise with the quality of education should be intolerable as it affects the most valuable resource i.e.our students who are the future custodians of our country.The university authorities need to conduct more surprise inspections of the affiliated colleges and take serious cognizance of such acts to arrest the declining standard of our education.
Yours etc…
Ashok Sharma
Flat No. 4,
Housing Colony,
Udhampur
II
Sir,
There was a time when only two Government Colleges of Education one each at Jammu and Srinagar could cater to the educational needs of the schools in the state up to the desirable extent. Now with the mushrooming of the B.Ed. Colleges in the State these colleges have become cottage industries with one time investment and all time earning ‘ Heenglagenafatkari mal chokha’. As per the report there are 72 B.Ed. Colleges affiliated with the Jammu University. A number of such colleges are located along the NH1 and the towns around it. B. Ed. Colleges and other professional colleges such as Law Colleges, Engineering Colleges and multiple health worker institutes are owned by the ‘honourable’ ministers, influential politicians and their sycophants on the names of saints, rishis, munis, freedom fighters and Prime Ministers and maximum of them constructed on the encroached revenue lands of nallas and gorges.
These B. Ed. Colleges give deserted look throughout the academic calendar because the local as well as the students from other states attend these colleges twice, once at the time of admission and the second when they come for the examination. Open book examination and mass copying has become the culture of these colleges in connivance with the University authorities. Maximum colleges charge unaccounted thousands of rupees in lieu of their absence during the academic session. Moreover many such colleges do not have the teaching faculty rather they show the teachers on staff of their schools at the time of inspection. In short these colleges do not hesitate in flouting the norms and rules of the university because ‘Mere seiyanbhaethanedarabdarkaheka’ .
Yours etc…
Shiv Kumar Padha
Basohli
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