Students protest against ‘discriminatory’ B.Ed courses in Jammu
Members of a student’s’ body backed by the opposition National Conference and Congress on Wednesday staged a protest here against the alleged “discrimination” in Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree courses in Jammu and Kashmir.
Carrying placards of “no to discrimination”, members of Forum of Recognized Colleges of Education today sat on dharna demanding end of the two set of norms for the students of Jammu and Kashmir regions.
“In Kashmir, the B.Ed course will be one year and for Jammu region it is two years. It is biggest discrimination”, senior National Conference (NC) leader and Forum’s president Harbans Singh told reporters here
“We want to end this discrimination. We are not against the recommendations of Justice Verma Commission relating to duration and curriculum of the teacher education programmes in the State but implementation of the same in one University and giving relaxation to others is not justified,” Singh said.
Terming the move highly discriminatory, he said that two-year B Ed Programme would be detrimental for students of Jammu who will loose one year upon their counterpart in Kashmir Division.
Supporting the protest former Minister and senior Congress leader, R S Chib said that government should end this discrimination immediately.
“How can there be two set of norms for Kashmir and Jammu regions”, Chib said, adding, “we want discrimination to end and there should same period fixed for the B.Ed course”.
Former Minister Gulchain Singh Charak said “The results of the discrimination would dangerous. We will not tolerate such a discrimination”.
He asked the Government to stop this “un-thoughtful hasty move” until a proper exercise is done in this regard so that the new scheme is implemented simultaneously in both the Universities of the State.
Meanwhile, activists of the Pradesh Youth Congress (PYC) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) jointly staged a demonstration against the state government and Jammu University authorities for adopting discriminatory approach against Jammu by enhancing the duration of BEd course from one year to two years in the varsity.
PTI
