The focus of Higher Education must be the quality of learning and teaching. To this end, all colleges would get themselves evaluated and accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) within the shortest possible time. Besides, an academic audit to determine the quality of academic input, need for course or options revision, and modernization of syllabus must be introduced in all colleges.
The Principal Secretary Higher Education Department instructed this, Rohit Kansal, chairing a meeting of Principals of Colleges of Jammu Division here today. He said that with the introduction of the New Education Policy NEP 2020, the focus had moved to quality education, flexibility in curriculum and globalization of outlook.
In his message to the principals, the Principal Secretary stressed that while good infrastructure was essential for any institution, the true aim of an institute of higher learning was to impart a humanistic, modern and high-quality education. He asked the Principals to introduce regular systems of pupil feedback and added that the feedback of the educators would form an essential part of their evaluation. The Principal Secretary instructed the principals to adopt technological tools like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Learning Management Systems (LMS).
He also said that colleges would be given greater flexibility and autonomy, they too would need to strive hard to achieve quality standards and learning outcomes. He also assured that conditions for utilization of Local Funds would be more flexible.
During the meeting, the Principal Secretary informed all about implementing New Education Policy-2020 from the academic session 2022-23 onwards. He also told about the new Bachelor in Vocational Skills (B. Voc) degree. Besides, colleges would now be encouraged to exchange knowledge and expertise globally. Innovation and incubation would be fostered in a hub and spoke model. Expert assistance and guidance would be provided by the universities and other premier institutes such as the IIT-Jammu, IIM-Jammu and others. He added that start-up competitions and research would be given special attention under the NEP-2020.
Earlier, the Principal Secretary reviewed the physical and financial expenditures under Capex for the current financial year of the various degree colleges. He also reviewed the status of infrastructure and other projects in these colleges. He took a serious view of projects completed and handed over but not yet put to use because of pending issues such as water supply and electricity. He directed the principals and executing agencies to ensure that all future DPRs should be comprehensive, including all relevant items. Once handed over, a project should be put to use immediately. He rectified all pending matters in Bani and Paloura within two weeks. The Principal Secretary assured that funds would not be a constraint wherever there was a genuine need.
The Principal Secretary reviewed the status of the newly established colleges. He noted that the enrollment in most colleges was below expectations and called upon principals of the colleges to ensure that the enrollment ratio was improved. In addition, he reviewed the availability of land in colleges where there were bottlenecks and asked the Divisional Commissioner to resolve the same immediately.
He also asked the executing agencies to prepare phase-wise Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for the college buildings to make them functional within the shortest possible time. Furthermore, he called for creating standardized designs for different kinds of projects which could be easily replicated by other colleges with minimal intervention as and when required.
Besides the above, languishing projects, staff vacancies, disciplines and streams and many other issues of the colleges were also discussed at length in the meeting.
Those present at the meeting included officials of the Higher Education department, including Special Secretary Rakesh Badyal, Director Finance Abdul Majid Butt, Director Planning Ghulam Ganie, Superintending Engineer R&B Kuldeep Nathyal, besides Principals of degree colleges and other senior officers.
