Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Why is TU always back?

By Manoj Kumar Karna

Tribhuvan University is the eldest university of Nepal. Its logo shows that it was organised in 1956 AD (2012 BS) and established in 1959 AD (2016 BS). In the meaning of the formation date, it is even older than the Supreme Court (SC) of Nepal. It is the reason that despite the mandatory decision of the SC, TU has not implemented institutionally some decisions of the SC and are in the ‘process’ but the regular same action, legally obstructed, has already been implemented in the favour of TU. Even the SC has ignored it as per the maturity of the TU and by considering its reputation. TU and Nepal Sanskrit University (NSU), the posterior formerly known as the Mahendra Sanskrit University, are probably only the two universities in Nepal which have the vice-chancellor (VC), rector and registrar posts for the regulation of the entire body. The newly-established universities have generally the vice-chancellor and registrar posts only. According to the TU directory/pocket diary 2020-2021, the TU has altogether fifty-two central and other offices, four institutes, four faculties, four research centres, thirty-nine central departments and sixty constituent campuses. However, this directory has not been updated sincerely because it mentions only some five other universities after TU in Nepal while there are ten after TU so, I do think that the constituent campus’ number, now, should be sixty-one and other entity’s number should also fluctuate! This is just a glimpse of the carelessness of some involved staffers in the glorious and the oldest university of Nepal. One can find so many types of mistakes even in the formal bulletin and other documents issued by TU.

The above sadistic image of the TU gives background today to raise the question of how it is facing its class running problems during this globally adverse effect of the Covid-19. It is also very strange to note that some constituent campuses of TU in this very capital Kathmandu operate and maintain everything very well but the average constituent campuses fail to maintain the service to the students and the related others. The columnist does remember the well-management of Public Youth Management Campus, Dhobichaur, Kathmandu towards 2065 BS. The office helpers were to be found always ready with essential materials to serve the teacher. The stakeholders had to be punctual at any cost. The students without uniform were marshalled any day from its main entrance gate then the seven sections of Bachelor were to run only in the morning shift without any obstacles. The teacher claiming his/her course was over in the particular section in the annual system was even to go to campus alternatively for attendance. What to write about any examination and account management! Comparatively, Padmakanya Multiple Campus, Bagbazar, another TU’s constituent campus, has a little bit less good management than Public Youth Campus but better than Patan Multiple or Tri-Chandra Multiple campuses. In comparison to these some of the campuses just in the capital city Kathmandu, the columnist has no full satisfaction in other campuses. However, I do not have information and experience of all constituent campuses of the TU in/outside Kathmandu. But what I do claim that surely Tri-Chandra, Patan, RR constituent campuses of TU in Kathmandu have more students than Public Youth and Padmakanya campuses but the management of campuses in the list of Patan is sharply less good than Public Youth list in many ratios. Some questions raise here. As all are in Kathmandu and under the same TU, why such management is seen as good and bad in the constituent campuses? Why do students not get administrative work done in a single day and needs to listen ‘tomorrow’ in the list of Patan-Tri-Chandra above? Some science and management faculties and technical courses start any online class quickly but the humanities faculty and some departments do not get initiated online classes on time and offer services to the stakeholders instantly? I mean, why have the TU’s all departments online classes not initiated till date? Is issuing the online directory from TU enough to conduct the online classes?

The columnist’s concern is that there are many campuses and departments even on the same campus which fails to start the online class. Teachers blame the department, the departments blame the campus administration and a few studious students blame overall the teacher and the campus. But I do think that only one pivotal point is the role of ‘account-section’ in the changed form of teaching methodology which can play a good role by understanding the new mode of expenditure and to provide the facilities to the stake-holders with good nexus with the campus chief.

Unfortunately, the ‘account section’ in many constituent campuses under TU does not value the academia. They would still prefer to sanction the amount for drinking water, stationery materials, extra-curricular activities during the pandemic Corona effect where there are no students physically present in the premise of campus but only the students’ leaders are in the ‘market’. In addition to these things, the account section and the campus administration fail to sanction the free Wi-Fi to the teachers as per the changed mode of expenditure on the duster, marker, and photocopy paper and so on. Many teachers have even no laptop and some who have a laptop, they lack knowledge of how to operate online class and also lack the data bill! How will a teacher tell such ill-management to the students? For the online class in TU, the central department has even opened an e-mail account ID for its staffers but the financial problem at the local level in the campus is not solved by the account section and the campus chief. Therefore, the change in the mentality of the account and general administration of the campus with good intention for service is a must for better and effective performance in TU.

TU suggests the ZoomApp generally for Bachelor’s classes and the MS365 Team APP for Master’s classes. However, the ZoomApp is controversial in the market as it claimed to belong to the ISI of Pakistan which gathers the user’s information and misbehaves with the public. The pornographic film suddenly appearing on the screen in the ministerial online meeting through this ZoomApp with board members of the Tourism Board just before some weeks cannot be forgotten when the technicians were unable to stop it and all the participants including the minister Yogesh Bhattarai had to go out from the meeting hall!

The writer is the lecturer, Patan Multiple Campus, Patandhoka

People’s Review Print Edition

 

No comments:

Post a Comment