Dear Friends, It looks that our efforts have not gone unnoticed. There is one relevant piepce in today's Kathmandu Post. For your convenience, I am giving both the link as well as the full text. *********************************************** http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=76993 University, union and intervention By Babu Ram Neupane *********************************************** The universities are the emblem of national identity and international pride. Their preliminary role is to promote a global fraternity to be spread by a lettered citizenry. At the same time, they are accountable to the nation in which they are established and functioning along with creating credibility at the international level. Political stability is essential to the smooth functioning of any of these institutions in the absence of which anarchy grips the scholastic environment. But overt political inclination of the related authority mars the very academic goals these institutions purport to serve. Moreover, the relevance of universities has increased by many folds given the homogeneity of human woes and heterogeneity of conflicts plaguing the world humanity. These universities by safeguarding and preserving their unique scholastic tenets are expected to reach out to the world with the well trained and disciplined manpower committed to upholding universal humanitarian values. If these expectations remain unfulfilled on their part, it could either be an inefficient leadership and a case of extreme political pressure exerted by the government among other reasons. The first and foremost demand forwarded by Nepal University Teachers' Association (NUTA), Tribhuvan University Teachers' Association (TUTA) and the central committee of Tribhuvan University Employees Association was the immediate resignation of the Vice -Chancellor, Rector, Registrar and the Chairperson of the Service Commission of the Tribhuvan University (TU). They were all installed by the royal government and they have resigned giving in to the resistance. Mahendra Sanskrit University (MSU) could never remain an exception and the teachers and employees have been launching an agitation against the sitting senior officials appointed by the erstwhile royal government. The Purbanchal University (PU), a regional one, has also witnessed similar protests and some of the office bearers have submitted their resignation. TU Part Time Teachers' Association (TUPTA) has been protesting demanding a permanent status to those who have served at least one academic session as a part- time teacher. The Kathmandu University (KU) has also come under sharp criticism for perpetrating nepotism, anti-intellectual collusion and an arbitrary administration. Some teachers working under it raised serious issues regarding eroding academic culture in a series of letters published in The Kathmandu Post. They have demanded the government interfere with KU to liberate it from the clutches of dictatorial leadership which, they claimed, had established a working unity with the crumbling royal regime against the people's democratic movement. There is no doubt that the universities should not be led by politically motivated people hell-bent on serving essentially individual ambitions. Still it should not be forgotten that a bad precedence of political appointments and intervention in this academic arena had been institutionalized by none other than those who cry foul over it now. The Nepali Congress and CPN-UML did not leave any stone unturned to influence the education sector, including the universities. They made a mess of the recruitment policies of teachers and the administrative staff .Their ideological bias let a number of below average candidates in for the service. A letter published in Kantipur (June 10) has pointed out that 23 percent of the permanent teachers in TU do not teach even one period as mentioned in a UNDP report. What could be more glaring example of sheer irresponsibility than this? Here another question arises as to why they remain unpunished. The answer is simple. They are either the office bearers of NUTA and TUTA or they are "someone special" who cannot be forced into attending the classes by the campus chief. TU has launched many pretentious plans to tame the teachers .But impunity has risen than ever before. It has also something to do with TUTA and NUTA complicity. It is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a great many controversial issues involving these self-centric and so-called veteran educationists. This is also an underlying cause of the latest discontent and agitation of the part time teachers who get a meager amount of Rs 102 on a period basis. Posted on: 2006-06-17 20:29:35 (Server Time)