Uncertainty haunts several vocational courses in Magadh University

With the governor-cum-chancellor yet to give the go ahead for the revival of several vocational courses in Magadh University (MU), uncertainty haunts the students and teachers associated with these courses. Admissions to courses like BBM, library science, fashion designing, foreign languages, PG course in bio- technology, information technology and several other courses were stayed by the chancellor as these courses were being run without obtaining the proper approval from the government and the chancellor. Statues too have not been framed for these courses. Physiotherapy students of the university also rue their lot as the course has not been approved by the physiotherapy council, the apex body constituted for the purpose. The chancellor office had to intervene following complaints of largescale anomalies including lack of uniformity in fee structure, absence of a quality control mechanism, ad-hocism, poor curriculum, absence of qualified faculty, non sharing of revenue with the university, financial mismanagement and violation of Section 35 of the Bihar Universities Act. Section 35 of the Universities Act says that no special pay or allowance or any other monetary benefit can be given to any teaching or non teaching employee working in the universities and colleges. In violation of this provision, regular teachers, Principals and other employees of the university and the colleges had been receiving extra monetary benefit from the money collected from the students of the vocational courses. Moreover, whereas, more than a dozen vocational courses were introduced in the university head quarters and constituent as well as affiliated colleges, no posts were either created or recruitments made for specialized teaching. Some of the colleges even outsourced teaching to agencies of dubious repute with the result that the pass outs have found little acceptance in the job market and most of them continue to swell the army of the unemployed. The university also did some funny things with these courses. For instance, the charge of physiotherapy was given to a teacher of economics and a teacher of English headed the department of hotel, hospitality and tourism management. Favouring regulation of these courses and a proper quality control mechanism, a college principal said that without doing any good to the students, the half-baked vocational courses have caused lot of harm to conventional education. The colleges are already faced with faculty shortage. A sizeable number of regular teachers, according to the principal, skip their basic job and hang around vocational courses where they get extra money to engage classes. Service rules do not permit double payment to the teachers, the principal said. Conceding that there was something seriously wrong with the vocational courses, MU interim VC Nandji Kumar said he is not going to lift the ban on admission to unapproved courses. The chancellor’s office is dealing with the issue and the guidelines/orders of the chancellor would be followed, Kumar said. Source: Education News