SRINAGAR: Welcoming the opening of 50 new colleges in Jammu and Kashmir, former finance minister Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Saturday demanded that the state government should simultaneously go for creation of permanent staff for these colleges to achieve the target.
“I wholeheartedly welcome opening of new colleges and felicitate the Honb’le Governor for this much required initiative. However, my earnest appeal would be that the administration should create permanent faculty positions for these colleges or otherwise the purpose of establishing these colleges would be defeated,” Bukhari remarked.
The former minister also urged the governor led administration to take a thorough review of the infrastructure including housing and equipment, besides faculty position in the existing colleges in the state and take effective measures to address the loopholes.
“Also the government must expedite the process of identification and arrangement of land wherever the new colleges are supposed to function in rented accommodations. Need of the hour is to create and advertise the faculty and other staff positions urgently so that the colleges, new and existing ones become real centers of learning in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
Bukhari said the existing and newly opened colleges should have basic as well as latest job-oriented courses for students to address the grave issue of rising unemployment in the state. “Only then can these institutions serve the purpose of providing quality and meaningful education to the youth of the state,” he said, while adding that the government should strike a balance between its focus on expansion of pre university education and strengthening the infrastructure in colleges across the state. (PTK)
