Suspense continues over fate of evening classes in the State with conflicting statements over validity of these courses causing discomfort to the students enrolled in these classes. More than 15,000 students are enrolled in the evening classes of State. The colleges affiliated with the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna (HNB) Central University Srinagar are in a piquant situation as they have given admissions to the students in the evening classes which are affiliated with the Sridev Suman University.
The affiliation of one college with two universities is being questioned by many. One senior officer of the higher education directorate on condition of anonymity told this correspondent that the two courses of two different universities in a college are not correct and it thus puts a question mark over their validity.
In a recent report submitted to the state government the higher education department has raised the issue and reportedly termed the evening classes in the colleges of Garhwal division as not valid. The higher education director Jagdish Prasad however has clarified that evening classes were started on the orders of the High Court so there should be no question mark on the legality of these classes.
The deputy director higher education N P Maheshwari told The Pioneer that the department in its report had merely pointed out that affiliation of one college with two universities is something unprecedented. He was of the opinion that University Grants Commission (UGC) would have no objection on the validity of such classes.
The evening classes are currently going on in 23 colleges in state. Out of these 12 colleges in the Kumaon division are affiliated to Kumaon University and since morning classes in these colleges are also affiliated by same university there is no problem in their validity. In Garhwal division 11 colleges are conducting evening classes and about 6000 students are enrolled in them.
These students are worried as their colleges are affiliated with different universities in the morning and evening classes. The state government has even recruited 323 temporary teachers to teach in the evening classes. The concept of evening classes in the state were devised by the state government to wriggle out of the situation arising out of the order of Nainital High Court (HC) in which it had restricted the number of admissions in the colleges of the state.
The implementation of the court order ensured that thousands of the students failed to get admissions in the colleges. These left out students started a massive state wide agitation buckling under the pressure of which the government mooted the idea of evening classes.