North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Vice-Chancellor Prabha Shankar Shukla today, Tuesday, September 12, claimed that the principals of all 75 colleges affiliated with the varsity were satisfied with the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. He also claimed that none of the principals have officially intimated any difficulty in implementing the four-year undergraduate programmes (FYUP) in their respective colleges.
His statements came in the wake of the Meghalaya College Teachers Association's (MCTA) ongoing "non-cooperation" movement demanding the rollback of the policy. MCTA is the state's college teachers' umbrella organisation, as per a report by PTI.
Shukla refuted the MCTA's allegation that the NEP was implemented in a "dictatorial" manner in July this year without "consulting all stakeholders".
"A meeting with principals of all affiliated colleges was held on July 21, 2023. Majority of college principals said they are satisfied with the move (to implement the NEP 2020)," he said in a statement.
In September 2020, the Academic Council of NEHU discussed and constituted a task force following which the Executive Council adopted in October 2020, the university informed through a statement. It added that NEHU has implemented the NEP for its PG courses since last year.
MCTA Secretary Airpeace Rani, who is among the delegation that met the NEHU VC on Monday, September 11, said that the teachers were "not satisfied" with the outcome of the meeting and that the "non-cooperation" movement of the college teachers will continue until the matter is resolved in the next Academic Council meeting. The next academic council meeting is due to be held by late October or early November this year, NEHU officials said.
"Our demand is simple — revoke the July notification of the university which was not approved by the Academic Council," Rani said. "Until then, the MCTA will continue with its non-cooperation movement and will not render their service to teach under the new four-year UG course," he added.
According to senior MCTA leaders, many colleges are not equipped to teach under the NEP 2020 syllabus and many do not have the required infrastructure and the teachers are not trained. On this, the NEHU VC has assured that the university will be assisting colleges in all their inadequacies, as per PTI.
