GUWAHATI, Dec 11 - The 15th foundation day of the Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University (KKHSOU), the first and only state open university of Northeast, was held with a daylong programme on Friday.
The foundation day lecture was delivered by Professor Nani Gopal Mahanta, Department of Political Science of Gauhati University, on the National Education Policy (NEP) and higher education in Assam. The foundation day lecture was held at the NEDFi Convention Centre.
Professor Mahanta stated that the National Education Policy is expected to fulfil the idea of national development through the overall development of human resources as emphasised in the NEP 2020.
Mahanta also pointed out the major problems and issues in the higher education sector of the State including innovations and autonomy, value addition into subject, plight of new universities of the state and the role of the government, harmonisation between the sciences and arts in terms of the emerging job market, policy and research convergence, role of teachers mainly in recruitment and promotion and quality research and publication.
Professor Mahanta also shed light on the recruitment processes of the college teachers while expressing his concerns over the decreasing number of students at the graduate levels in various colleges of the State.
�There is a need for proper mapping of the existing colleges of the State where the number of students and teachers besides the other aspects of human resource development shall be taken due care of. He also referred to the reallocation of the posts in the colleges as per pedagogical needs and demands,� he said.
He also stressed the clustering of colleges in order to meet mutual deficiencies and demands.
Prof Mahanta also mentioned in detail about the quality of publications from the colleges. While also referring to other important aspects such as teaching, structure of assessment, curriculum, use of technology etc., as stressed in the NEP 2020, he also expressed his concern over the challenges faced by the higher education sector as a whole due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also appreciated the KKHSOU for providing its learning materials to the students in the regional language.
Prof Mihir Kanti Choudhury, the Chief Advisor, Department of Education, Government of Assam and former Vice Chancellor, Tezpur University was the chief guest.
He presented a power point presentation on distance education from the beginning to the present scenario incorporating the State scenario.
The inaugural speech of the foundation day celebration was delivered by the Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Kandarpa Das. While providing a summary of the activities of the university, Prof Das mainly stressed how the university continued to provide its services to the learners even during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The daylong programme of the foundation day started at 9:15 am with flag hoisting and plantation drive in the city centre of the university at Khanapara. A get-together party of the employees of the university and a cultural event was also organised in the evening.
As part of the programme, Dr Dibyajyoti Mahanta, Dean (Study Centre) and Dean (Academic) also delivered a speech while Dr Arup Jyoti Choudhury, Registrar of the University offered the formal vote of thanks.
