Srinagar 30 April: Kashmir Center for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS) today expressed grave concern over, what it called, deteriorating quality of higher education.
In a statement issued here today, KCSDS said, “The new colleges that have been opened in the past decade or so are bereft of basic infrastructure both in terms of teaching faculty and the infrastructure needed to carry on the process of education smoothly and satisfactorily.”
Commenting on the government’s decision of closing down coaching centres, the statement said: “The quality of government school education is very poor, otherwise students would never go to the coaching centers.”
The statement said that the shutting down of educational institutions by the government every now and then to stall protests of students over the ‘gruesome killings of youth and other horrific acts’ amounts to the endorsement of such crimes.
The statement further said that the government instead of providing safe space for peaceful protests and free speech and expression within the educational institutions, has closed all avenues for students of individual and collective expression in a free, safe and peaceful atmosphere.
While highlighting the role of Government with regard to the education, KCSDS in its statement said that the job of government is to act as a watch dog against exorbitant fees and other malpractices of private tuition centers and schools.
“Instead of fulfilling its desired role in the education, the government is reneging its responsibility by creating hurdles in the academic life of students. It is tyranny of the highest order to disturb and disrupt educational career of our young scholars just to show political power and control over the lives of citizens as if military control were not enough,” said the KCSDS statement.
While urging the government to immediately order the opening of the tuition centers, KCSDS said that this step will bring the academic life of students back on track.
