Shillong, Oct 26: The emergent meeting of the NEHU Academic Council (AC) on Thursday decided to implement National Education Policy 2020 for its undergraduate courses from the academic session of 2023-2024.
The members in the meeting have also suggested the need to extend the session of the first semester students since the question papers as per the NEP syllabus is yet to be set.
NEHU Vice Chancellor, Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla looked disappointed after emerging from the emergent meeting of the AC.
The Joint Action Committee comprising NEHUTA and NEHUNSA were elated by this decision of the AC for approving the implementation of the NEP post facto.
The Meghalaya College Teachers Association (MCTA) representatives to the AC were not present in the meeting since their term had ended in September. The MCTA will now need the new representative to the AC.
While speaking to reporters after the meeting of the Academic Council, JAC chairman, Prof Lakhon Kma said that they are happy since they wanted this to happen right from day one when the vice chancellor had notified the implementation of the NEP for the undergraduate courses without the approval of the AC.
According to him, the decision of the vice chancellor to implement the NEP through the notification issued on July 12 is illegitimate since AC is the supreme body to take a decision on policy matters of the university.
The JAC chairman pointed out that the 110th meeting of the Academic Council had clearly stated that they were not ready to go ahead to implement the NEP.
“But the vice chancellor decided to go ahead to implement the NEP through some resolutions adopted in the Executive Council which are illegitimate,” Prof Kma said.
He also mentioned that even the MCTA had also urged upon the Vice Chancellor to rectify the error by convening the emergent meeting of the Academic Council.
“We have dragged this matter out for three months which could have been solved in 15 to 20 minutes due to the adamant attitude of the vice chancellor,” JAC chairman said.
According to him, they are moving ahead in implementing the NEP taking into account the interest of the students and the colleges.
He further said that it is victory of a sort since the different associations have been fighting unitedly for the past three months.
“Some good sense has finally prevailed as the vice chancellor was under pressure from several quarters including the President of India and Governor who had written to him to set things right as per the rule book,” Prof Kma said.
On the extension of the session of the first semester students, he said that the examination of the first semesters would normally be held in the month of November.
“But the extension of the session is necessary since we have not yet set the question paper for the NEP. We need to adopt the Model Paper under NEP to set the question. We are expecting that the Model Paper will be adopted in the normal meeting of the AC to be held on October 31,” JAC chairman said.
He said that this is a normal thing in a transition period and the first batch students will always suffer.
According to him, the teachers will need more time to complete the syllabus to allow the students to digest things which they are required to learn as per the courses under the NEP.
“We are aware that the MCTA teachers were not able to take classes in view of the stalemate over the implementation of the NEP,” Prof Kma added.