By Our Reporter
Shillong, Oct 26: The months-long stalemate surrounding the implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in the state is now over.
An emergency meeting of the Academic Council (AC) of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) held on Thursday decided to implement NEP 2020 for its undergraduate courses from the 2023-2024 academic session, post-facto.
The members in the meeting suggested the extension of the session of the first semester students since the question papers as per the NEP syllabus are yet to be set.
After the meeting was over, NEHU Vice Chancellor, Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla appeared disappointed but the members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising NEHUTA and NEHUNSA, were elated by the AC’s decision, approving the NEP’s implementation post-facto.
The six representatives from the affiliated colleges in the AC were not present in the meeting as their term ended in August. The university will now need to hold an election to elect the new representatives of the affiliated colleges.
JAC chairman, Prof Lakhon Kma told reporters at the end of the meeting that they are happy since they wanted this to happen right from day one when the VC had notified the implementation of NEP for the undergraduate courses without the approval of the AC.
According to him, the VC’s decision to implement NEP through the notification issued on July 12 was illegitimate since the 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 AC had clearly stated that they were not ready to implement NEP.
“But the VC decided to go ahead to implement NEP through some resolutions adopted in the Executive Council which are illegitimate,” Prof Kma said.
He mentioned that the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) had also urged the VC to rectify the error by convening the emergency meeting of the AC.
“We dragged this matter out for three months, which could have been solved in 15 to 20 minutes, due to the adamant attitude of the VC,” he said. According to him, they are moving ahead with the implementation of NEP taking into account the interest of students and colleges. He further stated that it is victory of sorts considering the united fight put up by various associations in the past three months.
“Some good sense has finally prevailed as the VC was under pressure from several quarters including the President of India and the 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 first semester students, he said their examination will normally be held in November.
“But the extension of the session is necessary since we have not yet set the question papers for NEP. We need to adopt the Model Paper under NEP to set the questions. We are expecting that the Model Paper will be adopted in the normal meeting of the AC to be held on October 31,” the JAC chairman said.
He said 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 and allow students to learn things as per the courses under NEP.
“We are aware that the MCTA teachers were not able to take classes in view of the stalemate over NEP’s implementation,” Prof Kma added.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Tribal Teachers’ Association, NEHU (MeTTA-NEHU) in its emergency general body meeting unanimously resolved to extend full support to the JAC-NEHU so as to safeguard local causes and concerns and prevent any more infringement and abuse of power by the present VC.
In a statement, MeTTA-NEHU president, Prof DRL Nonglait said the meeting resolved to seek clarifications from the office of the VC on the selection and appointments of teachers for different positions, such as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor.