SHILLONG, Aug 8: Taking a dig at NEHU Vice Chancellor, Prabha Shankar Shukla, the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association on Tuesday said he was in a hurry to “impress his political masters in New Delhi” by pushing the NEP 2020 through without the approval of the Academic Council.
MCTA general secretary, Airpeace W. Rani said the Centre had appointed Shukla by ignoring local hopes and aspirations.
“The decision of the NEHU administration to implement the NEP from the 2023-24 academic session is not only illegitimate but dangerous for the students. It is illegitimate as it was not adopted by the Academic Council (AC), which is the body to take decisions on academic matters,” he said.
He said the AC consists of the professors of all departments under NEHU, representatives of other categories of teachers, heads of departments, representatives of the NEHU students, nominated members of the college principals, and representatives of the college teachers.
“When the AC preferred to implement NEP from the 2024-25 academic session, what made the VC and the officer on special duty (OSD) of the College Development Council issue an order to all the colleges to implement the NEP from the current academic session?” he asked.
What is worse is the effort of some NEHU teachers to question the power of the AC, Rani said and advised them to delve into the basis of the OSD’s order. The MCTA general secretary said that in a fairly developed democratic set-up if the allegation of wilful misinformation and a deliberate lie is being indulged in with the intent to push through certain agenda, such misuse of power makes them liable to tender their resignation and give up public life.
He also said the NEHU administration is forcefully trying to justify that its decision was in the best interest of the students.
“On the contrary, the thoughtless implementation of the NEP would be counter-productive, especially for the first batch of students,” he said.
Rani further said NEHU was very late in coming up with the ordinance relating to the implementation of the NEP as well as the NEP syllabi. “It was only on June 2 that the AC was able to adopt these,” he added.
“It was in the context of the late adoption of the ordinance and syllabi that there was a consensus in the 110th AC meeting that the NEP would be implemented from the 2024-25 session as colleges have had too little time to prepare. This was done keeping in mind the students’ interest,” he said.
NEHU has been unable to prepare the syllabi for some undergraduate programmes such as Bachelor in Music and Business Administration.
“This is a clear revelation of the hurriedness on the part of NEHU and the ill-preparedness to implement the NEP. How can NEP be partially implemented in the same college?” Rani asked.
He said the MCTA took the decision to oppose the implementation of the NEP from the current academic session after analysing that it would lead to producing half-baked graduates.
“Libraries need to be equipped with books and study materials for use by teachers and students for the new courses. Within an extremely limited time, the librarians will not be able to equip and strengthen the libraries. Teachers also will not have the time to prepare to teach the students,” he said.
According to the MCTA, the NEHU has not been able to frame the syllabi for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th semesters.
Without preparation and syllabi, the very purpose of the NEP would be defeated, Rani said while criticising Shukla for pursuing an agenda not beneficial for the state’s students.
“It is unclear whether the skill enhancement courses under the NEP would be taught by the existing set of teachers or not. If yes, there is not even a single workshop or training to empower the teachers for such courses,” he said.
The Meghalaya College Principals’ Council had earlier urged the MCTA to oppose the attempt to hurriedly implement the NEP. “It is strange that some principals took a U-turn after a few weeks,” Rani said.
