The maiden visit of Zameeruddin Shah, Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, to the institution’s Malappuram centre last week has given a much-needed push to Malabar’s dreams of educational development.
Mr. Shah, during his discussions with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in Thiruvananthapuram, promised to consider the demand for regional weight in admissions for students from Kerala at the Malappuram centre.
The statute does not permit the university to give weight or reservation to a section on the basis of region or religion. However, it can give up to 50 per cent reservation for internal candidates.
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University officials said the institution would make use of this provision to ensure that a fairly good number of students from Kerala got admissions at its Malappuram centre. Mr. Shah said the university would start higher secondary schools at its special centres, including the Malappuram centre at Chelamala, near Perinthalmanna.
It will thus become the first university in the State to maintain a higher secondary school.
P. Mohammed, Director of the Malappuram centre, said that starting a higher secondary school on the campus would go a long way in ensuring regional representation for the institution.
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Dr. Mohammed said the new school and new programmes would be ready by the next year.
The Chief Minister assured the Vice-Chancellor that he would intervene to get Union government nod for a Rs. 140-crore proposal submitted by the Malappuram centre.
The Vice-Chancellor’s emphatic “no” to the demand by a group of teachers at Aligarh to close down the special centres had given a shot in the arm for the Malappuram campus.
Mr. Shah gained assurances from the State’s Ministers about setting up an 11-kV substation for the campus and arranging transport facilities for Chelamala.
Dr. Mohammed said that new job-oriented courses would be devised, considering the requirements of the students. “We will not go for conventional courses,” he said.
During an interaction with a group of university alumni, Mr. Shah assured them that the university would set up a pre-recruitment training centre for officers’ jobs in the armed forces. He said that the university would make solid efforts to address the backwardness of the Muslim community in many fields, particularly in the armed forces.
Mr. Shah said Muslims had a meagre representation of 0.5 per cent in the officer cadre in the armed forces, when Muslims constituted 16 per cent of the country’s population. He said the statistics showed the gravity of backwardness the community suffered.
He said that when the Sikh community constituted six per cent of the population, 13 per cent of the officers in the armed forces were Sikhs.
P.K. Abdul Azis, outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the university, accompanied Mr. Shah.
They held discussions with staff members, students, and other agencies involved in the construction of the campus.
The alumni accorded a warm welcome to Mr. Shah. Prof. Azis handed over a memento to him.