Last Updated on April 10, 2021 at 4:47 pm
The criteria on which candidates are selected in Government Degree Colleges has come under scanner since Higher Education Department has randomly allotted points to online courses. This is ignoring of guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Jammu and Kashmir Higher Education Department has made four revisions in guidelines within two years for employing candidates on an academic arrangement basis. Department issued latest set of guidelines on 25 February, 2021 in which 30 points were allotted to PhD.
According to reports It came to everyone’s surprise when the department issued a modification of earlier guidelines increasing points of PhD to 38, giving M.Phil degree holders 8 points and a combination of M.Phil and Ph.D 38 points. Moreover, these guidelines also mentioned providing a maximum of 2 points for online courses (0.5 points per online course) i.e. MOOCS, SWAYAM, NPTELS, ARPIT etc.
Many critics of this decision pointed out that giving 38 points to Ph.D degree and online courses is a purely random decision and ignores UGC guidelines. UGC issued latest guidelines in February 2018 for short-listing of Assistant professors post. These guidelines mention that 20 points will be granted to PhD and 5 points to M.Phil with 55% or less marks and 7 points for 60% and above marks. Moreover, there were no points allotted for online courses.
A teaching faculty member complained that it is a conspiracy to grant 38 points to PhD holders and 2 points for online courses. “This will only benefit students who have got their PhDs from universities of other states. He alleged that Higher Education department is not following UGC guidelines.
He said that the government department is framing guidelines which will benefit only an interest group rather than serving government’s purpose of selecting best candidate among all aspirants. He also mentioned that Higher Education Department defied UGC guidelines in payments of remuneration.
He alleged that according to UGC guidelines, teaching faculty members must be given a basic salary of around Rs. 57,000 and guest faculty should be paid at least Rs. 1500 per lecture. JK Higher Education department is deciding everything from eligibility criteria to payment of remuneration to teaching faculty without caring much about UGC guidelines. He demanded that the Lieutenant Governor administration should take note of this matter and put an end to this discrimination with academic arrangement faculty of Jammu and Kashmir.
