Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 11: At Kashmir University’s North Kashmir Campus in Delina, basic science courses are still not offered 14 years after the institution was established, forcing students to travel outside the Valley to study them.
A group of concerned citizens complained to the Excelsior that the facility’s slow development had undermined its original goal of bringing education to remote areas. They said the foundation of this campus in 2008, which serves the outlying regions of North Kashmir, was intended to make higher education more readily available to the youth living in these areas, but it has been growing slowly. “Although this campus would have benefited the residents of rural, densely populated districts like Kupwara, Baramulla and Handwara, it has not been designed to meet their needs,” they said.
They demanded that the campus start basic science courses in Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany and Geology, as well as basic social science courses in History and Geography.
“I am puzzled as to how a University can function without providing a course in Mathematics given that it forms one of the foundations of all modern concepts and knowledge,” a retired Professor, who was part of the group, said, adding that they demand that LG Manoj Sinha, Chancellor of the University, take action to begin these courses on campus.
According to the institution’s authorities, the University offers business administration, computer science, and English- related programmes but no courses in biology or social science.
“We are only offering applied science courses there, but the basic science courses are equally important as they are the foundation for all these courses,” an official said.
As a result, he continued, many students who wish to enroll in these courses must leave the Valley because there are not enough seats on the main campus. “The main campus cannot launch more departments or increase the seats due to a lack of space and human resources. The opening of such courses would have lessened the pressure on the main campus, where the labs and classrooms are already overcrowded,” he said.
An educationist said that the poor execution of the Government’s Cluster University plan has made things worse for these remote areas. “They have merged the five colleges of the city centre with the Cluster University, which were already a stone’s throw from the main campus. Infrastructure and human resources would have been pooled with the establishment of Cluster Universities in remote locations, such as north and south Kashmir, but the proposal was poorly carried out,” he said.
He added that implementing the Cluster University model in rural areas would have brought education to students from these remote locales in line with the New Education Plan (NEP).
Director of the North Campus, Bashir Ahmad, told Excelsior that they felt the need to launch such courses on campus as well. “This year, we are likely to start some humanities courses like Arabic and Persian,” he added.
He said that the lack of infrastructure was to blame for the delay in the introduction of these courses. “The construction of the academic block will be taken up soon, and once it is done, the new courses will also begin,” he said.
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