The face-off between state government and the contractual lecturers is affecting education of many students studying at various graduate colleges across the Kashmir valley. The contractual lecturers are on an indefinite strike and have boycotted the classes as Government ‘has failed to fulfil their long-pending demands’.
Many classes at almost every college have not been going on from last three days – since the strike began.
“Class work remained suspended as the contractual teaching staff, which is a major workforce in the colleges, stayed away from teaching,” says Khurram Ahmad, a student at Sri Pratap College here.
For students covering long distances, the strike has added to the inconvenience. “We cover a distance of almost 70 kilometres from Srinagar to Baramulla and since last three days the classes are not taking place,” says Ifra Shaikh, who is pursuing Bachelors in Computer Application at Women’s Degree College, Baramulla in North Kashmir.
Ifra, who is in the third year of her graduation, feels teachers must realize that very less time is left to prepare for final examination. “If the strike goes on it can really prove perilous for our future,” she says.
In all the major colleges in Srinagar, unaware about the ongoing strike, students were seen outside the classes waiting for teachers.
“We, don’t know what exactly the problem between the government and the teachers is, but, in this tug of war students are the sole sufferers,” says Hamid Ali, who is pursuing graduation at Valley’s oldest institution- Amar Singh College.
Students particularly in the final years of their graduation are finding it hard to comprehend as for three successive years colleges during summer have hardly functioned.
“My graduation has been affected by something or the other. First the Amarnath land row which was followed by Shopian rape and murder case, the last year civil unrest and now the indefinite strike,” says an engineering student Munsheeb Shah.
“I can count my attendance on finger-tips for the number of times I had lectures in last 1095 days,” he says with an evident sarcasm.
But the fears of students are too little for the community of contractual lecturers, 'whose woes have hardly been tendered by the government'.
At least 850 lecturers working in various colleges are demanding revocation of an order of the Higher Education that asks them to teach 150- 200 students.
These teachers believe the order is against the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms and had rendered 1100 of their colleagues jobless.
“The workload circular has reduced a teacher’s job to that of a Munshi (record-keeper) as we have to teach 150 to 200 students which is a gross violation of UGC norms,” says a contractual teacher Mohammad Wasim.
The teachers believe that the government’s decision has forced them to go on strike. “We have been observing silent protests, wearing black arm bands in colleges and submitting appeals to the principals, but the government did not comply with our demands,” says Tanveer Hussain, a contractual teacher.
A solution if not reached fast could put career of many students in jeopardy, he remarks emphatically.
