Sachin
It has been around ten days now and no possible confluence of the suggestions and proposals,made during the deliberation of the Board of Governors of NIT Srinagar, seems to be taking place.The outcome of the much anticipated meeting of the Board of Governors which was held on October 4 is still awaited as the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) is yet to take a call on the report forwarded by BOG.This phlegmatic approach of MHRD in providing the solution is causing a dejection among students,whose worries regarding their future and career are escalating with each passing day.
As the resistance leadership in the Kashmir valley has issued a fresh protest calendar upto October 20,there seems no near end to the ongoing turmoil and in that case the reopening of the institute and resumption of academic activities is a far cry. Meanwhile, with the completion of his tenure,the present Director of NIT will be leaving the college soon.A farewell event is being organised in his honour on October 15 in NIT. His departure comes at a moment when the future of around 3000 students is hanging in the mid of nowhere and their fate remaining undecided.
Referring to the proposals and recommendations made by the administration,the proposal to curtail the winter vacations and utilising them to compensate the academic loss is quite abstract and will be very tough to be implemented practically. With the air breeze getting more cooler and temperature dipping to zero and even minus during the months of December and January in the Valley, it will be tough for the students to acclimatise themselves to the severe cold.While it will be a usual experience for the students belonging to the Valley or other colder regions, but for maximum students, who will be facing this for the first time, it will be no less than a challenge to survive the chilling and killing weather conditions of Kashmir.
The second proposal to save the semester by adopting various methods such as combining the minor examinations and shortening the duration of the semester, though possible, yet it will not be fair with the course structure of engineering as it demands more than just exams, lectures and tutorials.Engineering course is more of learning skills through experiments and demonstrations, attending seminars,completing projects,doing internships and training programs and organising and participating in technical events.
The year of 2016 has been unfortunately tough till now for the NIT Srinagar students as the college has functioned properly for mere three months of its academic calendar. With the ongoing unrest in the Valley, the students in final year and pre final year are witnessing such a crisis in their studies for the third time during their graduation as they have already suffered during the September 2014 flash floods and NIT Srinagar row of April 2016. While those in sophomore year are facing it for their second consecutive semester, the freshmen are still in dilemma of accepting the allotted college or look for any other alternative as many of them have already withdrawn their admissions.
Notwithstanding the despondency and being confronted with serious issues, the students are still maintaining their calm and are ready for any kind of tough grind and hard work to fight the crisis in their academics.Lots of students are even making best possible efforts at their personal level and have been doing self study,learning through online courses and attending private tuitions.
Although they are leaving no stone unturned to accomplish their careers goals, at the same time they are looking forward towards those in saddle, with a hope of any possible help and permanent solutions to tackle their problems.
Finally, the ball is in the court of MHRD and the onus is on HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to decide the further course of action by putting the interests of students above all and not letting them suffer any more because of the political blunders.Keeping in mind the volatility of the situation in politically sensitive Kashmir region, it is required for MHRD to come up with more consolidated strategies and a cognitive plan of action and that also without any further delay as the time is running out very fast, so that the degradation of the ‘importance’ of a national institute be desisted and a national loss of talent be prevented.
(The writer is a student of NIT Srinagar.)
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