Mayhem in Higher Education Print E-mail

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Written by Dr. A. P. Verma, Retd. Professor of Botany, A. N. College, Patna   
Monday, 31 May 2010 17:28

Good governance, protection of cultural heritage, health, higher education was the commitment of Nitish when he took over rein of the state.

Every individual was happy; electronic and print media also gave due importance seeing his past performance as the Railway Minister of the country. He is moving across the state  districts, talukas, panchayats to gain confidence of the people of the state. Probably Nitish has felt that people of this state have lost confidence in him, otherwise what was the reason to move in the streets of this state in scorching sun?

He is the only Chief Minister who has made perfect use of central funding in road connectivity. Nitish in an exclusive series "India empowered" has already stated that "State and Private initiatives in quenching the thirst of higher education has died out".

Today higher education is in a pitiable condition and most of the university departments are on the verge of closure due to unexpected retirement of talented teachers. Those reputed teachers who have got superannuation now enjoying the flavor of nice education either in deemed universities or central universities. They will never like to come back to Bihar seeing the apathetic attitude of the ruling ministry in the state.

It  is most surprising that  Nitish who is supposed as a sensitive Chief Minister could not understand the pulse of the state, so both the students and teachers are dissatisfied with his arrogant attitude and insular activities, otherwise there was no need to go for gaining VISHWAS from the people.

Time has not gone far off. If he is really sensitive towards education, he should maintain his commitment he mad on the floor of Vidhan Sabha on 30th March 2010. That would be another way in terms of protecting higher education. His creation of Aryabhatta university is a matter of praise and putting an academician Dr. Guha as its Vice Chancellor is really a matter of excellence. He should be given a free hand in making his own cabinet because he is a man of integrity and will not prefer any inhibition in his functioning.

The day Nitish will use his own qualitative approach, Bihar would be on the path of progress. The moment BJP and other parties will dictate to act, the progress of the state will be at stake and would be detrimental for the state, particularly for Nitish and his associates.


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+2 # Phani Bhushan 2010-06-01 14:40
This is a burning issue which is often sidetracked. Education has been neglected all along. This situation has not arisen all of a sudden but is the product of chronic neglect and apathy. Leaders used students for their ends as they are gullible and impressionable. Students have scant regard for their teachers and institutions. Teachers make excuses when they have to take classes. They do not take pains to teach them how do practical and how to achieve their targets. When you visit an institution you find teachers quibbling over little things and gossiping about things that relate to their home, children, house and spouse. They are busy manipulating things, trying to look for secondary sources of income. They don’t believe in lecturing students in the class rooms but on how they will get DA, TA, grants and travel opportunities so that they are able to make money. Their indifference percolated in students and they began to pay less respect to them. When the situation became pathetic, bureaucracy entered into the arena. Less qualified persons began to creep in as high officials in the university. Bureaucrats found a haven to show their prowess and they began to find loopholes, and to their happy surprise they found that there were lacunae everywhere. Teachers began to emulate leaders who enjoyed vast resources without any respect for the law of the land. This led to the creation of a situation of tu-tu-main-main. That is, a blame game started, where every body became interested in improving the conduct of others. This exercise proved to be endlessly futile. There will be no solution unless and until everyone took the blame for the decline and take a vow to end this vicious circle.
 
 
+1 # Nirmal K Mishra 2010-06-02 08:22
The decline in higher education began with second revolution call given by JP. The upshot of this revolution can be felt in almost all walks of life. But this does not mean there should be no evolution/ revolution. It is just that extraneous influence percolated in the campus life. It is difficult to insulate an institution where young minds with diverse background throng and where intellectuals stake their claim for expanding their horizon and work for their livelihood.

Many of them felt stifled as the campus life was defiled by those who wanted a change in the society uproot corruption by hook or by crook. I still recount an incident. Sometime in 1973 my rickshaw got stuck because of long procession ahead near Patna Railway station. My fellow traveler who was a teacher in New York asked me what these precisionists were shouting about. I said, “They are shouting against the corruption in public life”. “Are they honest?” he wondered. The precisionists included housewives, wearing thick gold bangles given to them by their husbands working in the secretariat earning by very honest means! What percentage of precisionists was honest? We cannot sit on the rooftops and shout at the passers by, “hey, you are corrupt”.

It is a matter of degrees. We are chained to the society and an indivisible part of it. We are a product of the society, where Phoolan Devi can be easily elected by people to enter into the parliament. A young man whose father is a corrupt official shows a bold face and is lauded compared to a person whose father is honest. We reward and lionize those who are daring and corrupt, and shove off the honest ones. But for all this we will have to take a bit of blame/ kudos’ whatever way we look at it.

The best I would do is resist the temptation and struggle passively to bring about a change in the system.

I share the concern and pain of Dr. A.P Verma.
 

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