KOCHI: T Unnatha Vidyabhyasa Adhyapak Sangh (UVAS) has made a scathing attack on the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC), saying the much-hyped educational reforms advertised to be carried out by the council were mere eyewash.“Many of the practices KSHEC claims to have introduced have already been in practice,” said MP Ajith Kumar, state president of UVAS, an affiliate of the Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh.
Listing examples, Ajith Kumar said, “Seeking the help of foreign scholars in the state’s universities is not a novel initiative as the University Grants Commission (UGC) envisages cultural exchange programmes, invoking the help of foreign scholars among universities at the international level,” he said in a statement.
“While UGC has already mooted easing the problems of PhD students, especially with regard to the termination of guide-ship of retiring teachers, the move to meet UGC in this regard is irrelevant. KSHEC’s decision to revise and reform the postgraduate curriculum by setting up the Curriculum Committee, comprising the experts concerned, will clash with the recently-constituted PG Board of Studies in state universities. It is just to ride roughshod over the latter,” Ajith Kumar said.
KSHEC’s idea of ‘split vacation’ of a month at the end of each semester, instead of the two-month annual vacation will only confuse the university, teachers and students, he said.“That the idea will fail has been proven in Mahatma Gandhi University where it was revoked. The formation of the proposed Academic Volunteer Group by accommodating willing persons will lead to the formation of a group of teachers who, under the pretext of volunteering for developmental academic activities, will skip taking classes at universities and colleges,” he said.
“Such unintelligent and hollow decisions that lack substance can make the situation messier. This is just an eyewash in view of the forthcoming elections to the senates of the state’s universities,” he said. Even examination and valuation systems were in shambles, said Ajith Kumar. “The second, fourth and sixth semester classes in University of Kerala, which were expected to be completed by March, are yet to begin due to the delay in the valuation of the last semester answer sheets.
Only two months are left for the sixth semester examination. If classes and examinations are not completed before March the outgoing students will miss the chance to get admissions in other universities and institutions,” he said.Ajith Kumar said it was high time Kerala University and its Examination Committee rose to the occasion to saw the problems solved.