Principals express fear over students’ polls

The state had banned students’ elections in the 1980s when Owen D’Souza, a leader of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) was murdered outside Mithibai College.

As talks over students’ council elections heat up in the wake of several announcements made by the state education minister, the issue took centrestage at a joint consultation meeting between the principals’ forum of Savitribai Phule Pune University and Dr Vijay Narkhede, joint director of higher education, at MIT-SOM College, Kothrud, on Saturday.

Expressing fear of unrest returning to colleges if students’ council elections are held again, city principals made it clear that the idea is not welcome to them. “Most principals expressed fear that once politics enters into the campus by way of students’ elections, it will lead to violence and unrest. As academicians, we are not equipped to deal with such issues. Also, students’ elections would give way to outside elements to enter the campus, which is difficult to control. Besides, there is a certain animosity between groups that are created between students themselves,” said Dr Sudhakar Jadhavar, general secretary, Pune University Principals Forum.

The state had banned students’ elections in the 1980s when Owen D’Souza, a leader of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) was murdered outside Mithibai College. The government then decided to do away with students’ council polls.

However, agreeing that college principals would have no way out of the situation if the state education department decides to go ahead with the polls, principals deliberated on what could be done ahead.

“We are not opposing the elections even though we know what would happen later. All we are saying is that we don’t have the means to conduct these elections and the responsibility should not be given to college principals. Our role is academics and not such to conduct such activities. The general consensus was that if elections are to be held, it should be handled by the revenue and police department. However, college principals should be consulted, as ultimately we would have to handle the after-effects,” said Nandakumar Nikam, president of principals’ forum.

Meanwhile, college principals also discussed various other challenges such as vacant posts and reluctance of the education department to fill these, resultant problems in getting NAAC accredition owing to empty posts, incorrect evaluation of vacant posts based on outdated student data, payment-related issues of professors including the new Sevaarth system for online salary re-imbursements and so on.

“One of the major problems being faced by colleges is the issue of vacant posts. For many years, approvals for new appointments have been pending and most colleges are facing a staff shortage. On the other hand, it is mandatory for colleges to get NAAC accredition. But one of the NAAC conditions is that at least 50 percent of the teaching posts should be filled, whereas in many colleges, it is not so. Hence, it is a double-edged sword for colleges. Besides, if you see the process which is followed to calculate the student population as against which professors can be sanctioned, they are going by the data of 1997-1998 which is outdated,” Nikam added.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Tags:
SPPU