Tap available resources for quality education: Deo Nukhu

Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 29

Parliamentary Secretary for Higher & Technical Education Deo Nukhu today said, higher education plays a vital role in the development of any nation, and stressed, ‘if we want progress and development in our state, it is our duty and responsibility of the teaching faculty to impart quality education to our children’.
He was speaking as the chief guest of the inaugural session of the one day workshop on ‘Quality enhancement initiatives’ organised by the Directorate of Higher Education for principals and coordinators of secular colleges with an objective to envision, inspire and excel at Capital Convention Centre, Kohima.
While the growth of higher and technical education is in progress at a very fast pace all over the country, he said Nagaland is also working hard to catch up with the pace of development. Quality assurance in Higher Education, he said is a process by which an institution is evaluated and therefore, he hope the goal of assessment for improvement of physical infrastructure and human resources and also quality control by means of accreditation shall be fulfilled in due course of time. He informed that in order to fulfill the UGC Regulation 2012 of Mandatory Assessment & Accreditation, many colleges are in the process of submitting Letter of Intent (LOI) and have applied for accreditation, and is confident NAAC Bengaluru under UGC shall be considerate in assessing the higher education institutions of the state.
Highlighting some of the progress and achievements of the universities and institutions in the state, Deo Nukhu said the Global Open University Nagaland (TGON) was established in 2008 and ICFAI University at Sovima by an Act of Legislative Assembly 2006. He also informed the house that an Act was passed in 2012 for establishment of Amity University Campus at Kohima, and another in 2014 for establishment of North Eastern Christian University (NECU) which is being proposed to start by the academic session 2017-18.
He also expressed happiness on the progress of the construction works at the proposed Model College at Wakching (Science Stream) Mon district under RUSA Scheme. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has approved for establishment of “Indian Institute of Science Education & Research” (IISER), which hopefully will start by the academic session 2016-17 in a Transit Campus, he informed.
The Department of Technical Education is under preparation to start an Engineering College in the state very soon, and is also hoping to have a Department of Law for LLM course under Nagaland University too. At the same time preparations are also on to start a Medical College at Kohima by the academic session 2016-17, he informed.
With so many development projects underway to improve quality sustenance education in the state, the Parliamentary Secretary is optimistic that with the support and cooperation of Nagaland University, various colleges, NAAC office under UGC and active participation of all concerned, it will bring about quality education in the state for the benefit of mankind.
In his keynote address, C Thangamuthu, Former Vice Chancellor Bharathidasan University Tiruchirappali, Tamil Nadu said the key parameters quality focus of higher education is knowledge imparting and knowledge creation. Therefore, he said students must be inspired and taught in such a way that they must be the creators of further knowledge.
Urging the gathering, he said all must be conscious of being in a professional segment, wherein a teacher must have a self esteem of the highest order, must take pleasure in teaching, be able to inspire the students, and must be a role model as a teacher. ‘Education is not meant for imparting information but inspiring the students’ he said and maintained that the students must simply be made to think creatively, rather than pumping information. At the same time, he also pointed out that the students must have the confidence to ask questions rather than answering the questions asked by the teachers.
Giving a brief account on the method and process of accreditation, Thangamuthu advised the colleges not to be fussy about the possible outcome, pointing out that many are unnecessarily apprehensive about the end result.
He further advised all to understand the concept of quality bench marking and try to operationalise from the institutionalize context with particular reference to the involvement of the institution. Though there will be many constraints and hiccups, he said the challenges lies in how far one can optimize with the available resources. He further stressed that institution must think of individuality, customizing the national parameters which must result in variety of quality benchmarks which are special to that particular institution.
Speaking as the guest of honour, Professor BK Konwar, Vice Chancellor Nagaland University, Lumami asked the intellectuals and scholars present to assess themselves on where they stand, and to plan on how to improve oneself. He also stressed that the basic need of the present day is to know where one stand and on how one plan, pointing out that one cannot plan for tomorrow without having a vision.
The programme was also graced by BS Ponmudiraj, Assistant Advisor (North East In-charge), NAAC Bangalore as the main resource person.
FP Solo, Commissioner and Secretary, Higher & Technical Education chaired the inaugural session while the invocation prayer was offered by Rev Keviyiekielie Linyii and vote of thanks proposed by Dr Norbert Noraho, Director Higher Education.
In the afternoon session presentation on ‘Quality enhancement initiatives’ was presented by C Thangamuthu and presentation from NAAC assessed colleges were presented by Chubayongla, Principal FAC Mokokchung and Dr Sk Chhabra, Principal Unity College Dimapur followed by interaction.
The workshop by attended by host of principals and coordinators of secular colleges from 64 colleges from across the state.