SHILLONG, Aug 2: The Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA), which has launched a non-cooperation movement against what they term as “forced” implementation of the National Education Policy, 2020, on Wednesday made it clear that the university’s academic council was the right forum to deliberate on the NEP.
“We want Vice Chancellor Prabha Shankar Shukla to call a meeting of the academic council to discuss this matter since we are part of it. Any discussion outside the academic council would not be official,” MCTA general secretary, Airpeace W. Rani said.
He observed that the VC was afraid of convening the meeting of the academic council since he knows well that NEHU Teachers Association and Meghalaya Tribal Teachers Association are unhappy with the way the VC handled this particular issue.
Clarifying that they are not against the implementation of the NEP, Rani asserted that proper procedure should be followed while implementing such a crucial policy.
“We have suggested implementing the NEP from the next academic session since we understand the need for detailed deliberations on the pros and cons,” Rani said.
He also questioned the VC’s silence on the representation which the MCTA had submitted to him.
Rani also expressed surprise that people who are heading the NEP, especially those who belong to the state, did not advise the VC against hurrying with the NEP.
“We were hoping that they would do their jobs since it is our students who are going to suffer. The immediate repercussion is that the fee structure will increase since the colleges will have to appoint new faculties to teach the new subjects,” the MCTA general secretary said.
Rani also said that the VC was free to use “brute force” to implement the policy since a majority of the heads of colleges and even state government are on the same page with regard to implementation of NEP.
“As teachers, we may have to surrender our protest since we are also employees and we have to perform our duties. But we will remain firm on our stand even though we might have to stand alone,” he said.
He pointed out the imminent dangers of delaying the start of the academic session.
“They are yet to finalise the courses and they have not yet decided on the teachers who will teach the new courses whereas by now they should have started preparing the question papers for the first semester exams,” Rani said.
“Who is going to suffer if the quality of teaching drops? We are clear in our conscience since we have tried our best to ensure a proper system is put in place before going ahead with the NEP. But everyone seems to be in a hurry without taking into account the pros and cons,” the MCTA general secretary added.
To a pointed query on their agitation, Rani said they will wait and watch how things unfold before deciding on their future course of action.
