Friday, July 11, 2008

College

College is once again in the news and this time its about more quotas and these quotas are for teachers. The college has decided to grant benefits to Christian applicants in teaching posts despite their marks. The college website states that there are vacancies in the Economics, English, History and Physics departments and the Christian applicants must specify their Church membership. After a new admission policy and karmachari strike, college is once again in the news and that too for the wrong reasons. What the college is doing may well be one of their many rights as a minority institution in order to emancipate the members of the community but this definitely raises a few questions. Does academic interaction at the teaching level need such religious segregation? Once a candidate has attained a certain minimum qualification, be it a BA, BSc or a relevant MA or MSc, he or she is an educated person who is capable of competing on a level playing field and rise in the field. Also, how can selecting one with inferior marks over a gold medallist [as reports are saying] enhance academic standards in college, who has had very good teachers [the greats in the department where I study include Percival Spear, IH Quereshi, Professor Amin, Dr. Baker, Upinder Singh to name a few...] in the past, none of whom I presume needed any 'preference' because they followed a particular religion. The college is for the students and is a place where we receive quality education and not an 'employement shop' as Rev. Thampu would often say in the assemblies. Nor should it be an employement shop, one which gives jobs to members of its community only because he or she belongs to the community. No student comes all the way to this college to learn from teachers who are selected due to their religious affinities and that too when better applicants were there. But then, one can comment further only as the days pass and the picture becomes clear but what remains clear is that another name for college has become controversy...

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