Kohima, October 16 (MExN): With an aim to enhance quality in Higher Education with particular emphasis on the state and the North-East, a seminar on Quality Education for teachers of Higher Education in Nagaland was held here today at Kohima College, Kohima.
Jointly organised and sponsored by the University Grants Commission (NERO) and Kohima College, the objective of the seminar was to explore underlying visions and philosophical aims of higher education in general, also considering critical issues such as the ideas proposed by scholars and educationist in remaking higher education to improve quality.
Dr. Rajiv Das, Lecturer, Department of Economics, Handique Girls College, Guwahati, Assam, Dr Utpal Dutta, Lecturer, Department of Zoology, Handique Girls College, Guwahati, Assam and Dr A.J Sebastian, HoD, Department of English, Nagaland University were the resource persons for the seminar, and the themes of their papers were “Role of Government funding in Higher Education”, “Quality assurance in faculty development and environment” and “Enhancement of student achievement by improving discipline, guidance and counseling” respectively.
Earlier the gathering was welcomed and introduced to the seminar by C. Khalong Ao, Principal, Kohima College and Keynote address on Quality Education was delivered by Prof. SK Gupta, Prof-in-charge of Examinations, Nagaland University, Member, College Quality Assessment Committee, Government of India.
Highlighting the issues and dimensions of quality education, Prof. SK Gupta in his key note address said that “people should be educated to be better citizens and to build their capacity to be visionary, responsible and entrepreneurial”. He was also of the opinion that the huge increase in the number of students entering higher education has precipitated crises in universities all over the world because governments are no longer willing or able to fund the increase in expenditure on higher education.
Stressing on the present 42 colleges affiliated under Nagaland University, he opined that “the so called urban areas like Dimapur and Kohima has affected the quality education in Nagaland both in quality and quantity”. “This may be due to the lack of coordination between the permission granting organisation and the affiliating institution” he said and further added that “the permission to start a new college must be based on its needs in the particular area after thorough assessment by the government and the University”.
“The arrest of mushroom growth of well-equipped higher education institutions is the need of the hour” he said and further urged quality education institutions to debate and discuss more, reflecting on the challenges and needs of the society. The day long seminar was later followed by questions and discussions on papers presented and valedictory session in the evening. The valedictory session was chaired by Zetso Sakhrie, lecturer, Department of English, Kohima College and Moderators report was reported by Kevileno Sakhrie, HoD, Department of English, Kohima College. Vote of thanks was delivered by Watila Longchar, Vice Principal, Kohima College.
