Northeast Echoes , Politics of education : Patricia Mukhim

PATRICIA MUKHIM

Politics of education Since its establishment, Nagaland University has been in the news for the wrong reasons. Successive vice-chancellors of the university have apparently failed to carry out their duty both as academicians and administrators. Lack of financial accountability and transparency and the wrong utilisation of resources have rightly agitated the minds of the university teachers. They have moved heaven and earth to get the wrongs addressed by the Union ministry of human resource development. Teachers of Nagaland University participate in a protest rally against vice-chancellor K. Kannan in Kohima last week. Picture by N.B. Saga One vice-chancellor was removed on that account only to be replaced by another who, according to the teachers, is alleged to be equally if not more corrupt. Nagaland is perhaps the only state where vice-chancellors spend a considerable time hobnobbing with political bigwigs, although this should not be the case at all. When teachers go on an agitation mode — and in the case of Nagaland it has been a protracted one — the consequences are felt by the student community. Normally teachers strikes and close down universities as the last resort. But when the agitation becomes the sole preoccupation of those who are to impart knowledge, there is a serious lapse and it is time for citizens’ groups of Nagaland to take stock of the situation. Isolated battle If a university is not functioning in the manner it should, then should the onus not fall upon the Naga public to demand that things be set right? Why should teachers alone take up cudgels on their own behalf and fight their battle in an isolated manner? After all, the university was set up on the demand of the people of Nagaland so that it serves their purpose. It was never meant to be only an employment agency where a few people would get jobs and a few others their education. A university is a centre of knowledge and a laboratory for rigorous research in different spheres so as to assist human society in its growth and development. Steven Swartz, a professor of Macquarie University, says: “A university is for training people for a job as well as opening their eyes, hearts and minds so that they can analyse complex problems, communicate their point of view to others, work in teams, trying to improve the nature of society and understanding the universe and their place in it.” In that sense, a university has a larger social purpose and is not just a place for consuming academic knowledge. Any knowledge that does not translate into a better social, political, economic and human transformation is therefore quite useless. The role of a university professor is definitely more challenging than that of a primary or high school teacher. The role of the latter is essentially to build the basic skills of students in their formative years, help them form good habits, live a disciplined life with respect for fellow beings and nature and help mould the personalities of the children in a manner that is desirable and yet leaves them with the liberty of thought and action. A university teacher, on the other hand, has the responsibility to build human beings who are questioning and who challenge the status quo. They guide research students to rigorously test out their field data in the laboratory of rational thinking where assumptions are eliminated and facts are distilled with clarity and logic. To be a university teacher therefore requires not only academic qualifications and communication skills but also the highest standards of intellectual integrity. Hence, it is jarring to hear of university teachers pursuing an agenda to remove the vice-chancellor. Right to dissent This antagonistic stance by a group whose prime duty is the pursuit of greater intellectual accomplishments for better social responses seems incongruent with their stated goals. It is true that the university is a place where dissent flourishes and is even encouraged because lack of dissent or the silence of the citizen is the bane of modern society. Yet dissent is by no means destructive. It is a diligent pursuit of the truth by advancing the most cogent reasons. Dissent certainly has nothing to do with violence. It is in fact the most non-violent path pursued by the world’s greatest thinkers. Universities are supposed to produce such modern thinkers who can rise to the challenge of solving complex human problems. If university teachers were to spend more of their waking hours engaged in a dissent that is no longer reasonable and which takes them out of the classroom which is the laboratory of ideas, there is a cause for genuine concern. At this point of time, the teachers of the Nagaland University might find it hard to agree with me but in their more sober moments they too would see the futility of fighting their own battle without marshalling the larger society which is actually the real beneficiary of a university. The teachers in their release to the media have tried to justify their actions and have also brought to the fore their compulsions to stop teaching activities indefinitely. Things have indeed reached a flashpoint. At least 10 teachers who are members of the Nagaland University Teachers’ Association have been suspended from their jobs. The non-teaching staff are also in an agitated mood. It may be reminded that the association has been pursuing the cases of corruption against the current vice-chancellor and his predecessor as well. Political clout One question that baffles is why the ministry of human resource development sends the kind of people it does to occupy a leadership position in an academia? It is an open secret that the bureaucracy in the ministry is very powerful. This is perhaps the only country where vice-chancellors and heads of other institutions are selected not for their academic excellence but because they know powerful people in Delhi and in the ministry. How can any university perform well under such circumstances? Besides, vice-chancellors today spend more of their time in the national capital running around for funds and other resources and actually spend very little time in their real work of building a healthy academic atmosphere and in teaching. In a state like Nagaland, which is already so volatile, it would have made sense to appoint a vice-chancellor with unquestioned credentials. Unfortunately, all incumbents thus far have failed the test. But far from learning lessons, New Delhi does business as usual. These actions of the Union ministry are reflective of a Brahmin mindset. This is how Delhi has always treated its periphery. The attitude is that if the periphery is asking for something, give them the worst because they do not deserve better. It is the attitude of the ruler towards the ruled, which is not what a democracy should be. But whoever said that India practises democracy in letter and spirit has not lived in the Northeast. The Nagaland University affairs are indeed very unfortunate. But somebody has to break the deadlock and resolve matters once and for all. (The author can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com)

source: telegraph india