Education dept to establish at least one HEI in every district

August 3, 2024 9 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Kohima | August 3

Nagaland Government has proposed six more Model Colleges under PM-USHA initiatives, with the vision to establish at least one Higher Education Institution (HEI) in every District headquarters.

Informing this, Director of Higher Education, Dr A. Nshoga said currently there are 101 HEIs-both public and private institutions in Nagaland. They include five universities- one central and four private and two other institutions of national importance viz. NIT/NIELIT.

Highlighting these figures at the ANCSU 45th foundation day and degree toppers felicitation programme, he informed that there are 71 colleges in the state, out of which 17 are government colleges and 54 private. There are nine B.Ed colleges of which two are government and seven are private. Nagaland also has three professional colleges, one nursing school, four science colleges and 28 theological colleges.

The state’s overall Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) stands at 18.8% as against the National GER 28.4%. Dr Nshoga attributed the low GER in Nagaland to migration of students to outside the state, lack of multi-disciplinary colleges and inadequate infrastructures of the institutions.

There are 69 affiliated colleges under Nagaland University, out of which 35 colleges have permanently affiliated to NU; 33 colleges have 2 (f) and 12 (b) UGC status and 5 colleges are offering PG programmes in the state, he informed.

Out of the 71 colleges, he said 13 government colleges and 24 private colleges have accredited to NAAC with good grades, and are now onboard into the Binary Accreditation system.

Currently with 641 teachers in government colleges, Dr Nshoga said recruitment processes are still continuing to bring more teachers in the class rooms, although, he admitted that faculty strength and salary components are another challenge.

With the introduction of NEP 2020, he said the department has a big challenge towards implementation due to lack of fund to build robust infrastructures to introduce multidisciplinary institutions in the state.

Becoming vibrant multi-disciplinary institution
To transform HEIs in Nagaland, Dr Nshoga said, the department is taking initiatives to establish multi-disciplinary colleges, and knowledge hubs to cater to more than 3000 students in one roof that offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with high quality teaching, research and community engagement.

As NEP 2020 suggests 50% of GER by 2035 and 3000 by 2040, he maintained that the department will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions and to have larger students’ enrolment preferably, in thousands for optimal use of infrastructures and resources.

In due course of time, Dr Nshoga viewed that all stand-alone and single stream HEIs will be phased out in Nagaland, and move towards becoming vibrant multi-disciplinary institutions in order to encourage high quality multidisciplinary and cross- multidisciplinary teaching, learning and research across fields.

Further, he said, HEIs in Nagaland is aimed to be an integrated higher education system by inclusion of professional and vocational education which would eventually merge into one coherent ecosystem of higher education.

Hence, Dr Nshoga maintained that to realise all these, the department has proposed for financial grants under PM-USHA projects under the Ministry of Higher Education wherein funds are awaited.

Also, to keep pace with the 21st century educational systems, the department, he asserted is taking an initiative to digitalise all the government colleges with optimum use of ICT and digital platforms.

Guidelines for private university approved
Dr Nshoga also informed that guidelines of establishing private university has been approved by the State Cabinet, and that many private universities are going to be set up in Nagaland.

Further, to cater the students will skill knowledge, the department has signed MoUs with various skill development agencies, such as IIM, NIT, IBM, INFOSYS, Kingstone University, UNNATI Foundation, Saleforce and Aviation industry.

Towards this end, he sought the cooperation and support of the students’ union to continue to strive for quality of higher educational systems in the state, and to never compromise the quality and maintain the standard of higher education by taking proactive measures in adhering to UGC rules and regulations in toto in the department.