Chandigarh
14 July 2017
DIVYA AZAD
An urgent meeting of Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising 13 different Associations (representing over 1000 Unaided Colleges of Punjab) was called today at Chandigarh. Representatives of various associations expressed their concern on the sorry state of education & the problems being faced by the unaided colleges in Punjab.
Dr. J.S Dhaliwal, President, Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA); Dr. Anshu Kataria, President, Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) & Spokesman, JAC; Sh. Charanjit Singh Walia, President, Nursing Association; S. Sukhmander Singh Chatha, Punjab Unaided Degree Colleges Association (PUDCA); Mr. Shimanshu Gupta, ITI Association etc led the meeting.
Sh. Raman Bhalla,Former Minister; Kulbir Singh Zira, MLA; Parminder Singh Pinki, MLA Ferozpur etc also attended the meeting.
JAC has also met Finance Minister, Punjab, Sh. Manpreet Singh Badal and urged him to get release 115 Crore from the state to the colleges which has already been released by the Centre Govt. so that pending amount from centre Govt. can also be released at the earliest. Badal assured he committee for the early release of the pending amount.
Spokesman, JAC, Dr. Anshu Kataria while speaking said that the quality of education in Punjab is deteriorating day by day. Today’s youth is going away from skill or skill based education. Even after getting good facilities and infrastructure in unaided institutions, students don’t want to do mastery on their subjects. Sports and other cultural activities also do not attract the youth category. This attitude of youth towards education is alarming.
The Committee blamed the government also for the non interest of the students as since the last few years, repeated inspections of educational institutions in-between the session by various committees have wasted time & resources of the students & colleges. Apart from this, the government has repeatedly examined students of scheduled castes, minorities and other OBC category which has resulted into less interest of the students in their studies.
The committee further said that the Government has yet to pay a big amount of Post Matric Scholarship of SC students amounting around 1100 Crore of last many years to the Colleges. If this amount would not be paid then colleges won’t be able to pay salaries to their staff and ultimately students would be devoid from good quality education. Hence, the government’s goal of providing jobs to the skilled youth will not be fulfilled.
