By Dr. Asangba Tzudir
Recently, NPSC declared a total of 47 backlog vacancies in Higher Education, Technical Education, School Education and SCERT to be included and advertised for CESE-2025.
While it looks so normal, looking at the backlog years of the posts, things are far from normal as the 47 backlog vacancies even include a post which was advertised in the year 2016. These 47 posts falls under reserved category and has remained backlog till date. Now what is the guarantee that there will be applicants for these 47 reserved backlog posts that is to be filled through CESE-2025? At the end, it is the institution and more so the students that suffers. It only points to the urgent need for revisiting the State reservation policy.
Highlighting another instance, The Directorate of Higher Education, Govt. of Nagaland, through a notification No.HED/DIR-12014-15/307 Dt. Kohima the 8th December 2015 wrote to various Govt. colleges in Nagaland to take up necessary action for introduction of Honors and Additional new subjects in Undergraduate Course as recommended by the State Education Committee. Now through an Office Memorandum (OM) dated 6 June 2016, the Govt. of Nagaland imposed a ban on contractual appointments. Acting on the notification of the 8th December 2015, through a notification dated 29th June 2016, applicants were called for a suitability test on 1st July 2016. Through a notification No. HTE/12-3/2011(pt) dt, Kohima the 14th July, 2016, the selected candidates were temporarily deputed to various colleges on a fixed pay for a period on 1 (one) year. This happened in spite of the OM Dt. 6 June 2016 that put a ban on contractual appointments. The urgent need for introducing new Honors and general subjects cannot wait for the time required to create regular post, financial concurrence and other clearances, and the long process of NPSC recruitment, and not to mention the almost 10 years in waiting for an applicant from the reserved category.
While there is no academic weightage given to Ph.D holders in the NPSC selection process, and therefore a drawback, the present FYUGP demands the need for more teachers having Ph.D. Now those colleges that merged from CBCS to FYUGP will be the ones to start the 4th Year, which is the 7th Semester under FYUGP and which will have two categories of students – 4th Year Honors without Research, and 4th Year Honors with research. Those opting for research will have to write a research dissertation. (Those opting for research will need to have a cumulative score of 75% or more in the course of their first six semesters). Further, in the 5th Semester there is an internship component and some colleges do Research internship. Also, in the 7th Semester of the 4th year a compulsory Core paper on Research Methodology is there. All these points to the need for more teachers having Ph.D. Even to start the 4th Year of the FYUGP, a department should have at least two faculty members having Ph.D. However, the research component is such that more faculty members with Ph.D will be required so that eligible students who desire to do research in the 4th year can be accommodated.
There is also a need to address the State Govt.’s OM of 6 June 2016 which puts a ban on contractual appointments across departments. Yes, permanency is preferred over temporal arrangements but situational contexts especially in the higher Education are so compelling that stopgap arrangements are necessary because deaths or retirement vacancies or new posts cannot be immediately created and filled, yet the institution needs to run uninterrupted in the larger interest of the students. This FYUGP is not a joke and if not attended properly can have even disastrous consequences. The FYUGP, because of its Multidisciplinary approach it has various value added courses, Skill enhancement courses, inter-disciplinary courses which are very professional in nature and also requires teachers having expertise in such fields of study.
Sometimes, situations can be so compelling and necessary that it calls for exceptions to the rule.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
