In a meeting held at Raj Bhavan here today, the third in the series held in the past weeks, Governor N.N. Vohra discussed with the Education Minister and Vice Chancellors the issues involved in making institutions of higher education, including State and Central Universities, NIT and Colleges functional in the Kashmir Valley.Mr. Naeem Akhter, Minister for Education; Mr. P.K. Tripathi, Principal Secretary to Governor; Dr. Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir; Prof. Nazeer Ahmed, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-K; Prof. Mehraj-ud-Din, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Kashmir; Dr. Asgar Samoon, Commissioner /Secretary, Higher Education Department; and Prof. Ajaz Hussain Mir, Dean, Faculty Welfare, NIT, Srinagar, participated in the meeting.The Governor expressed serious concern over the irreparable damage suffered by students at all levels due to the recent unrest in the Kashmir Division. He re-iterated the crucial importance of the required steps being taken most expeditiously to compensate the loss of studies and for the pending examinations in colleges and Universities to be concluded before year end to ensure that the students do not lose an academic year.
Naeem Akhter, Minister for Education informed the Governor that the 10th and 12th class Board exams commenced on 14th November, 2016 in the Kashmir Valley and more than 95% students are taking these exams. He stated that admission to new classes in all schools shall be completed by 25th November, 2016 and extra classes will be held during the entire winter to compensate the loss of study suffered by students. Further more, remedial classes shall also be organized for students who have inadequate levels of competency. Commissioner, Higher Education informed that the colleges have issued notices to students for attending classes from the next week. He also informed that the colleges have uploaded the instruction material for the uncovered portion of the syllabus on the website of the Kashmir University as well as on that of some of the city colleges.Vice Chancellor, Kashmir University, informed that he had held a meeting of the Principals of Colleges in Kashmir Valley on 19th November wherein it had been decided that: (i) the UG examination in the Kashmir Division colleges shall commence by end of November; (ii) the bi-annual examination of 1stand 2nd year classes shall commence from 2nd week of December, 2016; (iii) the UG 3rd year examination will commence in the first week of January 2017; (iv) the 2nd semester (2015 batch) examination will start in December 2016 and the 3rd semester examination of this batch shall be held in early March 2017; (v) the 1st semester examination of 2016 batch students shall commence from 2nd week of January 2017 and the 2nd semester examination shall be held from 2nd week of March. There will be single examination for 3rd year Annual and Bi-annual students commencing from 1st week of January 2017. There will be separate examinations for cold zone colleges.
VC, Kashmir University, also informed that no relaxation in terms of reduction of syllabus or number of questions in a question paper shall be provided to any examinee except in case of UG 3rd year. Principals of Colleges have been asked to ensure completion and submission of registration record of their students within five days to the Registration section of the University. The students have been advised to undertake self study using e-content already uploaded on the University website. The University has already notified the date sheet for backlog candidates of UG 1st and 2nd year and regular/ backlog candidates of 3rd year of cold zone with the exams commencing on 28th, 30th and 29th November respectively. The date sheet has also been notified for the eligible regular/ fresh private candidates for UG 2nd semester (session December 2016) with examination scheduled to commence on 8th December, 2016.VC, SKUAST, Kashmir informed that the : (i) counseling for filling up of 456 seats in respect of UG Degree programmes was held in two rounds on 7th & 8th September and 15th October, 2016; (ii) the number of students admitted in various courses include BVSc. & AH (94), B.Sc. Agriculture (116), B.Sc. Sericulture (11), B.Sc. Horticulture (Hons) (113), B.Tech, Agriculture Engineering (27), B.Sc. Forestry (26) and BFSc (33); (iii) the Post Graduate admissions include MVSc (24), M.Sc. Agriculture/Sericulture (46), M.Sc. Horticulture (38), M.Sc. Forestry (8) and M.F.Sc (11); (iv) ICAR has allotted 73 candidates to SKUAST-K which includes 26 for UG Degree programmes, 39 for Master Degree programmes and 8 for Doctoral Degree programmes; (v) the spring semester 2016 examination which could not be held during the period of unrest in respect of the faculties of Agriculture (Wadoora), Faculty of Forestry (Benihama), Faculty of Horticulture (Shalimar) and Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry have now been scheduled w.e.f. 26th November, 2016; (vi) the date sheet for the left over spring semester examination will be notified by the respective Subject Matter Faculties.VC, Central University of Kashmir informed that the end semester examination for various UG programmes have already commenced and will be completed by the middle of December 2016. The examination in respect of ‘Convergent Journalism’ will be completed by 24th December 2016. All the students have been provided relevant study material in the form of e-content/ hard copy. The representative of NIT, Srinagar informed that an action plan has been drawn for early resumption of academic work in the institute. The Governor urged the Education Minister to review the infrastructural impediments in this regard for timely resolution.
The Raj Bhavan spokesman recalled that the Governor had earlier also, on 31st August, 2016 and 14thSeptember 2016, held meetings with Mr. Naeem Akhter which were attended by all the Vice Chancellors and others to discuss issues relating to reopening of schools, colleges and Universities in the Valley. In the meetings of the University Council of the Kashmir University and SKUAST, Kashmir, which were held in October 2016, the Governor had re-iterated the need to work out an action plan for all required steps to be taken to make up for the loss of working days and, side by side, to fix the revised schedule of the delayed examinations at all levels.During discussions, the Governor and the Minister called upon the Vice Chancellors to devote sustained close attention to bring about continuing visible improvement in the quality of education at the College and University levels. Governor noted that J&K would be left behind on all fronts if we failed to urgently focus on all obtaining voids in the entire educational system and provided the fullest support and guidance to enable our bright students to excel in every competitive examination.