Srinagar, May 04: The students of Kashmir University (KU) on Saturday alleged that they were left out of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) peer team inspection, as no one sought any feedback from them, which is one of the components of the NAAC assessment.
‘Kashmir Images’ spoke with scores of KU students and sought their comments over the NAAC team’s inspection. They alleged that a few Class Representatives (CRs) were “cherrypicked by the officials for holding an interaction with the NAAC team”.
“Three days prior to NAAC visit, we were told by our Head of the Department (HOD) to stay at home as according to him the staff will remain busy with the NAAC visit and there will be no class-work till May 04,” said a student of Political Science department.
“Are we so naïve that no one among us was allowed to meet the NAAC officials. The first priority of the NAAC team should have been to hold interactions with the students, but the NAAC team throughout their visit interacted with the administration and academic officials only and at the end a trained lot of students was chosen to represent over fifteen thousand students,” he added.
The students said that this was the only opportunity for them to highlight the pressing problems but the authorities once again have brushed all those problems under the carpet.
“The NAAC team should have taken the opportunity to evaluate both positives and negatives of Kashmir University in its inspection. But as the case is positives may have been successfully established by the varsity officials, but it is the students only who could prove that there are certain negatives and lacunae as well,” students added.
The students said that it is the examination and evaluation process which is a constant concern of every student at the varsity and it is unfortunate that the inspection team only visited the Examination Block and interacted with the Controller Examinations for making an assessment of examination and evaluation process.
“The NAAC officials should have visited the KU affiliated colleges also to know about the incompetence of the officials who are managing the examination and evaluation process. We want to accompany the NAAC team to the offices of certain officials who are responsible for taking some ‘pathetic decisions’ that have resulted in ruining the career of many students,” the students said.
“We have been told that any sort of outcome, negative or positive, of NAAC inspection will have a bearing on us,” said a student adding “will this confession, if made in front of the NAAC officials, have a bearing on the KU officials too?”
“We are not preventing our university from achieving its desired goals, but we want this institute to get rid of the mediocrity (of its human resource) which has delivered nothing but failures. Let these funds and the new responsibilities be handed over to those people who are capable of making a difference here,” said another student.
When contacted KU Convener said: “All the students were allowed to interact with the NAAC Peer Team and even parents were called to meet the said team so that they could submit their feedback.
“We have submitted the NAAC evaluation report and it will be known after couple of days as to which NAAC grade is awarded to KU,” he added.
Another senior KU official told ‘Kashmir Images’ that it was necessary to choose the desired students for the NAAC interaction. “We are eyeing for A+ grade and it was not wise to take any chances,” the official confessed.
