CAS not enCASHed: Humble teachers, Fumble Adminstrationa

Question1: Should the matter of teachers’ promotional delay be brought in the periphery of Human Rights violations?


Ans (teachers): Yes.

Ans (varsity officials): No

Question2: Should teachers be penalized for the fault or lacunae in our system?

Ans (teacher):No

Ans (varsity officials): Yes

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This is what exactly has been felt by many of the victimized teachers across the state who have been denied their due promotions under the CAS . Ranchi University has made it compulsory to attend at least one Orientation Course and one Refresher Course whereas, in the case of Ph.D. it is mandatory to attend one Orientation program of UGC run at different Academic Staff Colleges as per its Statute framed in the year 2007-08.But varsity officials did not think it necessary to attach a corrigendum in its statute in the light of fresh guidelines issued by UGC just in the next year, i.e., 2009.In its latest letter, i.e., Letter No. F.2-6/2002 (PS) dated 12th March, 2009, UGC clearly states, “ However, the date of participation in Orientation / refresher courses in respect of Teachers……for placement/ promotion under Career Advancement Scheme has been extended upto 30.6.2009.” In the same letter, it is also mentioned that , “ Whenever the requirement of participating in Orientation/ Refresher courses is not fulfilled, the promotion would not be held up…. Financial benefits should be given by the University from the due date of promotion.” Also, Ranchi University officials have shown their immaturity or impatience to draft a rule in the case of Ph.D. holders. Whereas, varsity officials have made it mandatory to attend one Orientation Program, UGC has never issued such guidelines. Instead, UGC in its letter No. F.2-9/97 (PS) very clearly writes, “A Ph.D. holder may be exempted for not having attended one course WHETHER refresher OR orientation courses as regards the eligibility for promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme to Lecturer (Sr. Scale)”.

As a result of this blunder, the cases that have come on the surface are quite ludicrous:

Case 1: Teachers, who have cleared either their NET or have done their Ph.D. or both, have become juniors to those teachers who are neither Ph.D. nor NET qualified, just because they have attended a 4-week Orientation program!

Case2: Those whose due promotion date has been fixed in a later date i.e., with effect from the date of the completion of their Orientation Program, are finding themselves in “No-Man’s land” and are considered ineligible for Reader or Selection Grade promotion.



The real question is not of throwing the ball in one another’s court. The real question is whether these innocent teachers should be left penalized absolutely on their fate? Some officials ask the figure of such cases just to check out the magnitude of the problem. But, once again the answer that dawn on our conscience is what if the number is just one. Injustice done even to one is injustice done to the whole fraternity. But, in this Utilitarian society where figure is more important than the humanity, this is important to reveal that the number of such offended teachers is no less than a hundred. The relationship between discrepancies and Ranchi University is indestructible. The demoralized and humiliated teachers are confused how to save their lost honor. Whether they should go to the classrooms to “build up the nation” or move to the court for the redressal of their grievances? Teachers’ team has pleaded their case repeatedly before the higher authorities of the university but higher authorities are pre-occupied in many ‘other higher projects’. I remember one couplet:

Muh ki baat suney har koi/ dil ka dard janey kaun

Awajo ke bazaaro me/dil ka dard janey kaun

( Who cares to listen to the pain of yelling heart in this insensitive world/ who cares to listen to the marginalized voice in this world of show-biz market )

Semester System or Sinister System

Today I got an inspiration from one of my  nearest friend Nelly and I have been suggested that I should not stop writing. Actually I was not sure that my blog would get a sincere reader. But now I am. Assured that my friend is there to bear with my useless write-ups.. I would keep sending my posts..Also I would follow all her suggestions.....only  if I m really convinced from within..Thank you very much  and my all prospective readers ( know not where they are..!!!)But as the title of my blog goes..VIBRATIONS...certainly it would reach to many others .. but once again who cares if it do not..DUNIYA DI THAIIN2.....
Following is one of my article , designed and crafted for a Newspaper, hence the style is not at all of BLOG-IANS:


Semester System or Sinister system? _








The University Grants Commission(UGC) has instructed all central, state and deemed universities in India to adopt a semester and Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The system will facilitate inter-institution transferability of students.

UGC Chairman Prof. Sukhdeo Thorat has written a letter (March, 2009) to all the vice-chancellors, informing them about the changes. The universities are now required to adopt the new measures regarding the introduction of semester system, credits for various courses and provision for inter-institution transferability of students. Varsities have been allotted a time period of two years to implement the measures. Now, the Ranchi University is also pulling up its shocks to implement it at PG and Under Graduate level (all autonomous colleges of the region have already implemented this).

The committee has also mentioned that all academic programs like certificate, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate, MPhil and PhD courses, should be subject to up -gradation or revision to a limited extent every academic year and substantially every three years. The UGC argues, “not only will this endow the academic programs with quality, but also add to their contemporariness and importance”.

The UGC guidelines mention that the ongoing system of examination, conducted at the end of session, has lot of drawbacks and needs improvement. The semester system will encourage and support faster learning opportunities. Moreover, it has the ability to accommodate diverse choices that students may like to have.

But the inside story is quite different from the above. However, it requires the readers’ patience to hold a bit to dig out the real story.

In fact, till date we were supposed to follow the British system of education. The British Raj had left behind a university system in India, which was modeled after their system back home. The student was assessed at the end of each year, for the three-year undergraduate course, where he or she underwent a university-level examination at end of each year to assess the student’s comprehensive grasp of the subject, be it History, English, Chemistry, Biology or Physics. A similar pattern of examination was followed for the two-year post-graduate studies. All this is soon set to change. Needless to say, much against our desire.

So why have the policy makers thought that a semester-style, credit-system for higher education, which is typically an American system of education, makes more sense than the year-end comprehensive examination? That too, 60-62 years after the Independence!.( I wonder if this is not the case of American hegemony in the World economy and the world becoming the Uni-polar? )

After having a bit experience in some chosen few campuses of Ranchi University, the Semester System and related myths have got some fresh light and some shocking facts have come on the “dance-floor” which require immediate retrospection which can either save or alert the ‘potential victims’:

MYTH 1.“There is a very strong feeling among faculty members that the semester-system will make the students more focused and control absenteeism.”

FACT: It NEITHER makes them focused NOR control the absenteeism unless teachers and college administration are responsible enough to do so. Moreover, colleges with disproportionate ratio of teachers and students, such system hardly holds any credibility.

MYTH 2. “The Semester System is also more intensive, so the student has to keep up with what is being taught in class.”

FACT : Quite contrarily,it has marred the continuity of the subject as it remains no more comprehensive and once a semester is over, students tend to forget what they learnt the previous year. Also the internal marking system can be subjective and many eklavyas have all the possibilities to face the music of modern Dronacharyas..”.

MYTH 3. The advantage of the semester system over the end-of-the-year examination method is that it is rigorous. Assignments have to be completed within a stipulated time frame, which helps. In the end-of-the-year examination module, students tend to take their courses a little lightly.

FACT: As far as being its rigorous is concerned, true that, it is…!! interestingly, not for the students but for the teachers. Teachers have to finish the Herculean syllabus in time and then they have to set questions, go for the rigorous invigilation duty and then they have to rush for a marathon relay of evaluation works ( this new Year 2011 was historical for Marwari College, Ranchi as the teachers left their spouse yelling at home and they beat the chill keeping themselves warm by burning their grey cells while evaluating arid answer sheets …no better than shits!!) .

MYTH 4. “Students tend to be much more involved in a semester system and the relationship between the teacher and student is far more personal.”

FACT : Relationship of the teacher and student has nothing to do with the Semester System . Rather, it varies from person to person.

Some pro- Semester academicians describe the annual curriculum as a ‘thali’ and the semester system with a credit-based curriculum as a ‘cafeteria menu’. But , the people who have the experience of having ‘thali’ in dhabas know better its dietary value and its being economic .Undoubtedly, The Semester System increases the expenses of students and it sweeps away poor students to the “unprivileged” colleges.

The Inside Story :

Many of us do not have the ample guts to proclaim the truth that the King is nude. Teachers who try to raise his voice against such aped- system ( I would like to call it as ‘copy-paste’-system), they are labeled as regressive teachers. The inside story is that many of the “progressive” teachers are feeding students with the selected questions, syllabus has unofficially been shrinked to “Mallika Sherawat -limit”, real lecture mode teaching has been buried long back, short and written and “baazaru” notes are in vogue, spoon – feeding has become the compulsion and teachers have to struggle hard to be in good books of students as to save themselves from their ire in case of topic left untouched . As if it was not enough for us, the news that the teachers’ evaluation would be done on the basis of our ‘meritorious’ students’ feedback in the new system have caused an earthquake in the academic seismic zone. This is absolutely shameful. This enforcement of Semester System is just an eye-wash and it does not suit properly to the taste of Indian educational system as it has also been a conclusion drawn in a National Conference recently held in Bangalore.

The government is aiming to aggressively push the Gross Enrolment Ratio to 15% from the current 10% and the setting up of the 30 universities that will have the semester system in place is estimated to cost the government Rs 1,31,022 crore.

What is absolutely transparent that the education system in India is heading towards privatization .Unmindful promotion and packaging of Vocational courses, compelling colleges to go for autonomy and then screwing them for Semester System – all these moves are just to turn educational institutions into a profit-making agency. Change is good but a whirlpool of change at such an unpredictable speed, at times, comes up with cyclonic effect.

Before some more institutions are made victim of this new System, it is high time for the retrospection.

“Let us go then, you and I…mmmh...Eastward Ho!” – abrupt ending? Sorry, gentlemen, I am also a cog of this Semester system. I am used to leave my lectures midway.



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