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The academic staff college of Mumbai University will now have to ensure that teachers are well-versed with the culture and society of those who come from the North-East. Established in 1987, the university’s academic staff college conducts orientation, refresher and short-term programmes for teachers from across the country. Mumbai University is also exploring ways of incorporating the cultural heritage and history of the North-East in its curriculum.
Following the death of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh who was killed earlier this year, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has sent a notification asking all academic staff colleges to take up the matter on an urgent basis.
“A communication has been received from the HRD Ministry regarding reports and recommendations of the committee set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs following the death of Nido Tania. One of the recommendations made by the committee in the report is regarding educating people about the North-East,” says the notification.
Besides the one at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus, there are four more academic staff colleges in Maharashtra at Dr B A Marathwada University, Nagpur University, University of Pune and Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University.
In February this year, several North-East students from Mumbai University and its affiliated colleges as well as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) had protested at Azad Maidan against the killing of Nido in Delhi. Recently, a 33-year-old TISS PhD scholar from Manipur district, Kashung Zingran Kengoo, was killed in Delhi in November this year.
“The UGC academic staff colleges (ASCs) can play an effective role in implementing these recommendations by organising special slots and sessions on understanding the culture and society of North-East region in the orientation, refresher and short-term courses offered by the ASCs. The resource person to conduct such sessions may be invited preferably from the higher educational institutions in the North-East region and should be someone well-versed with socio-cultural life of the region. Emphasis should be on the socio-cultural diversity of India, especially in orientation programmes, which are for newly-appointed teachers and prepare them psychologically and technologically. You are requested to take urgent steps in this regard,” the notification says.
MU authorities said the directive would be implemented. “The willingness to accept diversity is diminishing in our society and that shouldn’t be the case. Our orientation programmes focus on multiple components, including awareness of linkages between society, environment, development and education. And this already includes aspects like secularism, national integration, gender, equality and human rights among others,” said Dr K Shanthi, director of Mumbai University’s academic staff college.
mihika.basu@expresssindia.com
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