By TCN News,
New Delhi: Critiquing the new liberal ideology that informed higher education system in the country, Professor Krishna Kumar, an eminent educationist, bemoaned the crisis faced by the university system and said that ‘teacher’ as an ‘idea’ stood compromised.
Speaking at the national convention on ‘Higher Education at Crossroads’ on Tuesday at Jamia Millia Islamia, Professor Krishna Kumar underlined the foreclosing of the options that were available for teachers.
He observed that the metaphor ‘crossroads’ didn’t take away the limitations, that were available in the system, repudiating various options that were implied in the topic of the national convention. He also opined that the principle of colonization continued to shape education, as the ‘colonial project’, firstly, took shape in higher education, a release from Jamia said here.
Kumar felt that teaching has a relational character as it makes knowledge worthwhile for youngsters. A teacher, he emphasized, creates dignity and preserves certain ethos by entering into an academic relationship to widen the community of learners. The processes of the last few decades, compounded by the recommendations of the Fifth & Sixth Pay Commissions, have only legitimized dispensing with a teacher as a key- person in the education system, he said adding, it has led to an upsurge in ad-hoc teachers, running into thousands, and created an underclass of subalterns who have served uses for various university administrations.
Earlier, Professor Talat Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, wished that the national convention of various teachers’ associations would come out with recommendations for policy formulations in respect of higher education. He hoped that deliberations would help create a vision for improving higher education system in India by establishing linkages with society.
Other eminent academicians who spoke on the occasion were Professor Abad Ahmad, Chairman, Aga Khan Foundation, Professor Arun Kumar, Professor Nandita Narain, Professor MS Bhatt and Professor Badshah Alam.
Professor Arun Kumar pressed for pro-activeness to anticipate the challenges of higher education so that joint action could be offered by the community of teachers, the release added.
The convention was organised under the aegis of Coordination Committee of Teachers’ Associations of Universities based in Delhi viz. Jamia Teachers’ Association (JTA), Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA), IP University Teachers’ Association (IPTU), Indira Gandhi National Open University Teachers’ Association (IGNOUTA) and Ambedkar University Teachers’ Association (AUTA).