Our educational system needs to provide adequate
opportunities for the professional, personality and career development of
teachers since they are central to the whole education system. We need to
develop inbuilt mechanisms for their continuing education in order to provide adequate
opportunities for teachers within the framework of knowledge society. Generally
college or university teachers learn their art of teaching by emulating
outstanding models such as their own teachers or senior colleagues. However,
today, it is no longer possible to expect newly appointed teachers to acquire
the art of teaching by emulating their peers. Furthermore, there has been a knowledge
explosion in every discipline. College and university teachers have to
continuously update their knowledge in their own areas of expertise, or simply run
the risk of becoming totally redundant in a very short span of time. While the
really motivated and industrious teachers use their own resources to keep
themselves abreast of new knowledge and to train themselves in the latest
processes, methodologies and techniques of teaching, it is necessary to provide
systematic and organized orientation programmes for the large number of
teachers at the college and university level. This assumes greater importance
in light of the fact that unlike doctors, IAS and IPS officers no internship or
probationary training is imparted to teachers before sending them into the actual
profession of teaching. While most of them know their own subject very well,
some of them find themselves at loggerheads when it comes to teaching in a
classroom.
In light of these aims and objectives,
66 Human Resource Development Centres, formerly known as Academic Staff
Colleges have been established in 26 states across India by the University
Grants Commission with a view to organize specially designed orientation
programmes and refresher courses in pedagogy, educational psychology and
philosophy, information technology and socio-economic and political concerns
for all new entrants at the level of lecturers, covering every teacher at least
once in three to five years and to encourage teachers to participate in
seminars, symposia, workshops, etc.
Aim of the UGC-Human Resource
Development Centre, University of Kashmir is to design, organize, conduct,
monitor and evaluate General Orientation and Refresher Courses for college and
university teachers, interaction programmes for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars,
short-term courses for senior administrators, heads of departments, principals,
deans and functionaries, teaching programmes for non-teaching staff besides seminars,
symposia, workshops for all these categories in accordance with UGC guidelines.
It was in fulfillment of this function that the UGC-HRDC, UOK organized 73rd
General Orientation Course for newly appointed college and university teachers
from December 6th, 2016 to January 4th, 2017, which was
attended by a total of 29 faculty members from different colleges and universities
of J&K in the serene Naseembagh campus of the University of Kashmir where
the tranquil winter ambience and soothing shade of blazing chinars provided a
perfect atmosphere for brainstorming, intellectual discourse and exchange of
ideas.
This course was like a bouquet of
flowers that had flowers of different hues, colours and fragrances. Under the dynamic
leadership of Director, HRDC, Prof. Mohi-ud-din Sangmi a host of Resource Persons
from diverse streams of Education, Economics, Computer Sciences, Information
Technology, History, Central Asian Studies, Psychology, Earth Sciences, Home
Science, Women’s Studies, Physics, Media Education, Law, English Literature,
Electronics and Communication Technology, Commerce, Business and Management
Studies, Islamic Studies and Environmental Studies were invited to interact
with the participants of the course. As per the feedback received from participants
of this course most of the invited resource persons were highly resourceful,
eloquent and articulate in putting across their viewpoints even though it needs
to be mentioned that a few Resource Persons did not receive a very encouraging
feedback from the participants. However presentations and deliberations made by
most of the invited resource persons were rich in content wherein they not only
shared their knowledge but also their wisdom, and their lifetime experiences
giving real life examples of the efforts they had put in their own areas of
expertise and the bottlenecks they had faced. This gave the participants an
insight on how to overcome such difficulties while in pursuit of their goals
and missions and that is surely going to stand them in a good stead in the times
to come.
Some of the eminent resource persons who
interacted with the participants of the 73rd General Orientation
Course include Dean Academic Affairs, Prof. Mohammad Ashraf Wani, Dean
Research, Prof. Sheikh Javed Ahmad, Registrar, Prof. Musadiq Amin Sahaf,
Ex-Registrar, Prof. Zafar Ahmad Reshi, Dean College Development Council, Prof.
Nilofar Khan, Controller of Examination, Prof. Abdul Salam Bhat, Dean, Applied
Sciences and Technology, Prof. Ghulam Mohiuddin Bhat, Director, North Campus,
Dr Irshad Ahmad Wani, Dean and Director, Research and Development, Central
University of Kashmir, Prof. Mohammad Aslam, Dean, Social Sciences, CUK, Prof.
Hamidullah Marazi, Dean, Faculty of Law, Prof. Mohammad Hussain, Dean, Faculty
of Education, Prof. Mahmood Ahmad Khan, Chief Coordinator, DIQA, Dr Manzoor Ah
Shah, Retired Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani, Veteran Educationist, Prof. A.G.
Madhosh, Veteran Economist, Prof. Nisar Ali, Principal, S. P. College,
Srinagar, Prof. Yaseen Ahmad Shah, Head, Business School, Prof. Mufeed Ahmad, Head,
Dept. of Earth Sciences, Prof. Shakil Ah. Romshoo, Head Dept. of Food Sciences,
Prof. Farooq Masoodi, Head, Dept. of Physics, Prof. Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Head
Dept. of Psychology, Dr. Showkat Hussain, Ex-Joint Director Finance, Mohammad
Ashraf Malik, Director I.T & S.S Er Maroof Qadri, Ajaz ul Haque, EMMRC, Dr
Sayeda Afshana, MERC, Dr Mufti Mudasir, Dept. of English, Er. Majid Zaman,
IT&SS, Dr Muheet Ahmad, Institute of Computer Sciences, Dr. Bashir Ah. Joo,
Prof. Mustaq Ahmad Darzi and Dr. Tariq Ah. Lone, Business School, Dr Bashir
Ahmad, Mr. Fazl Illahi and Mr. M. S. Allaye from IASE, Dr Manzoor Ah. Bhat,
Islamic Studies, Dr. Arshad Hussain, GMC, Dr. Shariq Masoodi, SKIMS, Dr. M.
Ayub Dar, Dept. of Law, Mr. Shahnaz Bashir, CUK, Dr. Tabasum Firdous, CCAS, Dr
Maroof Shah and Dr. M. I. Geer, Dept. of Pharm. Sciences. Most of these
lectures were perceived as very insightful and enlightening by the participants.
Major thrust during the General
Orientation Course was laid upon basic modalities of teaching and learning
process besides imparting induction type training so that the participants are familiarized
with basic functioning of Examining Wing, IT&SS dept, DIQA etc. In pursuit
of these very goals, apart from regular teaching sessions a day-long workshop
on choice-based credit system was conducted by Dr. S. M. Shafi of the Dept. of
Commerce wherein participants were made to design new curricula in accordance
with CBCS and another day-long workshop on e-content development was conducted
at EMMRC, University of Kashmir wherein participants were given hands-on
training on e-content development. Two full days were devoted to sessions on higher
education, teaching skills, microteaching, effectiveness and philosophy of
education and two full days were devoted to information technology,
e-governance, e-learning and e-resources. All these workshops were a unique learning
experience that infused new skills among the participants and apprised them about
the application and use of such modalities in higher education system.
Participants also had a few sessions on service rules, income tax and leave
rules governing teaching faculty in higher education. They also wrote book
reviews, gave presentations of their own works and areas of expertise, appeared
in a written test at the end of the course and conducted day to day sessions in
an amiable manner. Feedback about each and every resource person, feedback
about the whole course as well as reports of day-to-day proceedings were
obtained from the participants of both the courses on daily basis. Most of the
course material pertaining to the course has been made available on HRDC
website for the benefit of the participants.
Valedictory function of the course was
held on January 4th, 2017 that was presided over by the Hon’ble
Vice-Chancellor, University of Kashmir, Prof. Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi who in his
presidential address emphasized upon the need to change and transform teachers as
well as teaching pedagogies in accordance with changing paradigms of higher
education so that they can keep pace with fast changing times and trends. He
urged upon teachers to be proud of being a teacher and carry forward the legacy
of being a teacher. He also called for a few sessions on teaching and
educational ethics in every such course.
(Author is Coordinator at the UGC-HRDC,
University of Kashmir)
