SHILLONG:
Vice Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla has sought time to take a call on the demand for convening an emergent Academic Council meeting to discuss the implementation of National Education Policy (NEP).
Shukla conveyed this to a joint delegation of the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) and NEHU Students’ Union, who met him on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters, HYC chief, Robertjune Kharjahrin said, “We have demanded an immediate Academic Council meeting as it is the best authority to decide on the future of the students of Meghalaya as well as students from outside the state. With experts and people with experience, the Academic Council will give the right opinion on the future of our students.”
“On this, we demand to convene an urgent Academic Council meeting, the NEHU VC said he needs time to discuss with his colleagues,” he added.
During the meeting, the delegation had questioned whether NEHU could decide to go ahead with the NEP implementation without approval of the Academic Council. As per NEHU norms and ordinances, the Academic Council is the authority, which will take decisions on policy matters.
“Therefore in our understanding, the decision to implement NEP is a policy matter and it needs the approval and sanction of the Academic Council. We feel that the Executive Council of NEHU cannot decide by itself to implement NEP without the approval of the Academic Council,” Kharjahrin pointed out.
In the wake of NEHU’s announcement to implement NEP, two groups have emerged. While one group is for going ahead with NEP implementation the other has expressed concern that Meghalaya is not ready because of numerous challenges.
In view of the confusion over the NEP implementation, the HYC leader said that the delegation has also demanded of the NEHU VC to immediately call a meeting with various institutions and teaching community, especially those who are staging an agitation against the hasty decision to implement NEP. He added that NEHU should invite the teachers’ bodies, be it Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA), which has decided to boycott the first semester classes, or the NEHU Teachers’ Association and others to have a proper discussion.
“He (Shukla) has assured us that he would immediately call all stakeholders to discuss the matter,” he said while adding “We also feel that all principals should also have a say on this matter and importantly this issue needs to be discussed in the presence of state government officials as when it comes to funding, NEHU will not be able to fund any money to the colleges, except academic support.”