Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat asked the higher education department officials while participating in a review meeting involving the higher education department and cooperatives in Dehradun on Saturday to make sure that the colleges impart quality education and also maintain data of the college and university students’ career tracking. Taking cognisance on universities’ registrar post are running vacant, CM asked them to fill these posts with immediate effect by creating separate cadre for this post. “It must be ensured that the academic calendar is followed in the colleges strictly.
Besides, a higher education board should be constituted to recruit new faculties and the dress code should be implemented in the colleges,” he stressed. He also assured that his Government would give Rs 22 crore for 26 under-construction colleges.
While affirming that the vice- chancellors of the universities and principals of the colleges are accountable for maintaining the right academic ambiance in the educational institutions, CM said that these institutions should not allow themselves to be reduced to mere certificate disbursing agencies. “Quality education is what these institutions are meant for.
Besides, it is the duty of the institutions’ heads to keep tracks of the careers of the students after they leave them on completing education there. To ensure this, a career tracker should be created,” he said. He also said that separate cadres for registrars and sub-registrars should be created.
Regretting the fact that syllabuses are not covered in many of the colleges within the academic calendar, he exhorted the college authorities to make sure that this does not repeat. “The teaching calendar must be put into place every year by June 25 and the examinations must be completed in 45 days,” he said. He also stressed on every college having e-library while asking the college authorities to use edusat as an alternative in case of any connectivity problem. “There must be a dress code in the campuses of the educational institutions,” he said, adding that higher education selection board should be constituted to cope with the faculty crunch.
laying thrust on community service being introduced by the college authorities, CM said that the college students must be roped in to make Uttarakhand a 100 percent literacy State. “Community service must be made mandatory and it should be used as a lever to increase the per capita income of the villages,” CM said, adding that vocational training should be imparted to the rural people to promote self- employment.
“The students must do some kind of researches in the villages and suggest how their living standards can be substantially improved,” he said. He also said that the State Government would create a corpus under the supervision of the chief minister and research scholarship would be given to 100 students from the corpus.
Referring to cashless economy, he said that the authorities should ensure that the students pay the college fees through POS.
CM was informed during the review meeting that Uttarakhand has come second in the higher education gross enrollment ratio (GER). Here enrollment ratio is 33.1 percent with the girls’ enrollment ratio standing at 34 percent and the boys enrollment ratio at 32.3 percent. Uttarakhand houses 29 PG colleges and 71 graduation level colleges.
Besides, a central university, five universities functioning under the State Government, three deemed universities and 12 private universities are functional in the State. Uttarakhand houses four central institutions of national importance. In the year 2016-17, the State Government spent Rs 366.99 crore for promoting higher education while for this financial year Rs 410.75 crore has been proposed. This aside, the CM was informed by the officials that the state has 25 accredited colleges – 19 run by Government and six run on Government grants.
Among those who attended the review meeting were the State Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat, additional chief secretary Dr Ranbir Singh, additional secretary Dr Raghav langer and vice -chancellors of several universities aside from the senior officers of the higher education and other departments.