Teachers of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) have expressed their deep concern at the “inordinate and inexplicable” delay in appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor of NEHU.
In a statement issued today, NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) and Meghalaya Tribal Teachers’ Association (MTTA) said that the search cum selection committee for appointment of Vice-Chancellor has completed its job since long and the file is stuck at some administrative level without the new incumbent being announced at the right earnest.
“In the absence of a new Vice-Chancellor, the progress of the university is practically stalled, as NEHU suffers from serious administrative, academic and financial lapses over the last five years that brought down the status and the rank of the university. Given such an unwarranted slide of NEHU, the earliest central university for the North-East region, the cause of higher education and specialised and professional training of talents from the region and Meghalaya is stunted, as the institutional frame has wilted during the tenure of Prof. S K Srivastava,” the statement said.
NEHUTA and MTTA also urged the Ministry of Education to complete the statutory procedure of appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor, as the process was completed by the search cum selection committee long back.
“Now that the new Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has taken charge, it is incumbent upon his good office to appoint a new Vice-Chancellor for NEHU, as the last step at the end of the process of search cum selection. The panel is with the Education Ministry and it is of utmost necessity that the ministry appoints the right candidate with specific necessary qualification that is needed to lead the university from its present state of freefall,” the two teachers’ bodies said.
They also reiterated that NEHU needs a Vice-Chancellor who is familiar with specific ethno-cultural and linguistic background of Meghalaya and the North East region, “so that the appropriately qualified candidate is able to correct the course of NEHU, to which it has deviated, leaving the right course of progress and development”.
“NEHU needs a qualified Vice-Chancellor from the local community who is grounded in the specific reality of the university and its cultural context so that students coming from myriad ethnic, tribal and non-ethnic background of North East region and other parts of the country can be given due care and attention for the bright future, which requires a direct connect. In all likelihood, any academician coming from outside the region and removed from local cultural context shall not be able to establish the much needed connection with students and the larger academic fraternity,” they added.
NEHUTA and MTTA also urged the Central government and the newly appointed Union Education Minister to consider the case of a tribal woman professor, who figures in the consideration of search cum selection committee “keeping in mind the unique matrilineal ethos of Meghalaya and the need for a healing touch to NEHU after nearly six years of not such an uplifting experience.”
“Particularly we would remind the Union government of its commitment towards NEHU objective of social, cultural, scientific and economic development of the tribal people of the North East and Meghalaya that calls for appointment of an acceptable, qualified and reasonably academically endowed person as Vice-Chancellor, who can also strike the much needed gender balance in a predominantly matrilineal social context that provides the catchment for students and researchers in NEHU,” the statement said.
