JAMMU: Left orphaned by the authorities, the Industrial Internship certificate (IIC) program which is attributed as key component of National Education Policy (NEP) and designed to empower students with practical exposure of skill oriented knowledge, is all set to become a money minting business for educational mafia in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
If reliable sources are to be believed, this crucial program has suffered a serious casualty at its inception stage due to lack of vission, mission and myopic view of a coterie who is known for prevailing upon the authorities through manipulations.
Due to academic bankruptcy of a few academicians who claimed themselves as “Advisors” of HED, this significant ingredient of NEP is all set to become a driverless and directionless task, angrily said a Computer Science teacher posted in GCW, Gandhi Nagar.
Carrying a weightage of two credits in under graduate degree course, the college students at the end of fourth semester have to compulsory complete cumulative 60 hours self financed IIC course as part of summer training with practical exposure to industrial houses as well as Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) at minimum cost to be charged by the later for providing refreshment and other facilities to beneficiaries.
So far, only Govt MAM College in Jammu division has accomplished this task successfully by organising visits of nearly 1100 students to different categories of businesses houses, industrial units as well as HEIs and Govt establishments.
Insiders in GDCs reveals, “There is a lobby of academicians who believes that anything can be accomplished on papers merely by sitting inside comfort rooms. “This lobby is creating obstacles in the smooth operation of the IIC program, further added our sources.
For realising goals of NEP, the academicians need to come out fool paradise and ensure that students get IIC only after practical exposure to assigned industrial units under the personal supervision of a concerned teacher, asserted a teaching faculty member of Cluster University of Jammu.
Directing students to manage IICs’ at their own level clearly indicts that the concerned GDCs’ teachers are abdicating from their professional responsibility, avers one faculty member of GCW, Gandhi Nagar preferring anonymity.
This undesired practice apart from playing havoc with education system not only defeat the spirit of NEP but also left gullible students to get exploited by educational mafia who are operating network for sale of projects, PhD thesis and PhDs outside educational institutions in connivance with merchants of GDCs, opined another teacher of GCW, Gandhi Nagar.
JK Global News Take : For the larger interest of students as well as implementation of NEP in letter and spirit, the higher ups in HED must intervene and see the nefarious designs of those burning midnight oil to erode sanctity of IIC program by refusing to come out of the comfort zones.