A section of university and college teachers apprehend a setback to the quality of higher education due to the State Government's reservations over the National Education Policy 2020.
While the Union Ministry of Education, the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education and various other regulatory bodies advocate internalisation of the new educational policy in the delivery system, the Higher Education Ministry in the State is opposed to it, putting Vice-Chancellors of State Universities in a quandary.
"Though the Governor and Chancellor strongly advocates adherence to NEP 2020, the VCs are currently not in a position to issue clear-cut instructions to Boards of Studies to incorporate provisions of the new policy while framing new content for UG and PG programmes which is an absolute necessity in a dynamic job-market scenario," a senior professor said.
Openly toeing NEP 2020 is being viewed as being antagonistic to the State Government, which provides financial support to the universities by way of block grants. At the same time, the VCs cannot afford to lose sight of the NEP 2020, since the universities may find the going tough to measure up to the specifications of improvements in NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) ranking and the standing in the annual NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework), college teachers involved in preparation of self-study reports for NAAC ranking said.
Teachers are particularly concerned about employability of students under the purview of State universities.
"There is bound to be imbalance in the skill sets of the students as those from private universities on which the State Higher Education Department do not have a say will have an upper hand in the job-market. There are indications that most of the private universities are vying with one another to derive optimal utility from the provisions of NEP 2020, with particular emphasis on inter-disciplinary education, compulsory internships, and roping in industry professionals for teaching," a principal of a college affiliated to Bharathidasan University rued.
