The NEHU today claimed that the decision to implement National Education Police (NEP) 2020 for first year undergraduate programme (FYUP) was taken after widespread consultations, deliberations, and approval of the relevant authorities of the university.
“The claim of dictatorial decision by the vice chancellor is not tenable,” NEHU said in a statement issued today.
On the allegation by Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) that the letter sent to the principals of the affiliated colleges by NEHU is illegal; the university said the letter sent by the Officer on Special Duty (CDC) “is a natural course of action after approval of the relevant authorities. The university does not find any procedural flaws to consider it illegal”.
Regarding the MCTA allegations that the decision to implement NEP 2020 was taken unilaterally by the NEHU without consulting all stakeholders, including the teachers’ associations, the NEHU said that stakeholders from all walks of life find representation in various authorities of the university, such as University Court, Executive Council, and Academic Council.
“These representatives present their concerns in the meetings before adopting a proposal by consent of the majority,” it added.
“Although there is no constitutional provision to include various associations, the stakeholders of many associations do find representation in the decision-making process of the university as the principals of colleges, teacher representatives (of both college and university), and student representatives. The resolution to adopt ordinance, regulations, and syllabus related to FYUP under NEP 2020 was taken in the Academic Council after thorough discussion and with the majority support in the presence of the representatives of the aforementioned stakeholders to uphold the core democratic values of this university. Therefore, the claim that the decision to implement NEP 2020 was taken unilaterally without consulting the stakeholders is not maintainable,” NEHU asserted.
On apprehension expressed by MCTA regarding the feasibility of implementation of the NEP 2020 from the current academic year, given the lack of infrastructure and resources in many colleges, NEHU said it has taken cognisance of the infrastructure and resource deficits in many colleges affiliated to NEHU.
“While appreciating this genuine concern of the MCTA, we have framed a curriculum structure which is implementable from the year 2023-24 without increasing additional class loads and infrastructure for this year,” the university said.
“The MCTA has further expressed concern that the implementation of the FYUP will lead to an increase in workload of the teachers and will put additional financial burden on students. The MCTA has asked for clarity on the modalities of the implementation of the NEP 2020, such as curriculum, assessment, and teacher training. The first part of the question is already addressed, while the second part on additional financial burden on students lacks substance. Furthermore, the management of the colleges are not under the purview of the university. The implementation committee stated that the first year of the NEP 2020 curriculum has been prepared and circulated to all the colleges and it does not require any additional human resource and infrastructure as of now. And we still have one year to develop the infrastructure for the second year,” it added.
NEHU also said that it has to think about the eligibility of graduates from the State for admission in postgraduate/research programmes in other institutes of the country starting from 2026-2027.
It also said that after going through all procedures that were required in finalising the implementation of NEP 2020 for the undergraduate courses in the 110th meeting of the Academic Council, the decision was communicated to all the principals of the affiliated colleges.
“So far, the university has not received any letter from the principals of our affiliated colleges intimating their difficulty in implementing the NEP 2020 in respect of FYUG programme,” the university said.
