NET/SLET-Pursuit for better Teachers/Lecturers can bring hopes in our Higher Education's Quality

National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET) for Assistant Professors

Since there is a high boom in higher education, causing to crass commercialisation, the University Grants Commission (UGC), yet again, has woken up to the poor quality of academics in colleges and has introduced regulations to maintain standards in higher education by insisting on minimum qualifications of teachers. As per the new regulations, the UGC may withhold the proposed grants from its funds to universities failing to comply with the regulations and grants affiliation to any course of study to any college under several sub-sections of its Acts.

According to the new UGC's regulations, any assistant professor (lecturer) must have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET) or must have a Ph.D to teach in college. The UGC has done away with the M. Phil. qualification after discovering that the teachers cleared M. Phil. in large numbers leading to deterioration in teaching. Nirmala Prasad, principal, MOP Vaishnav College for Women says, “One of the main problems is that the teaching is no longer an attractive career for students,”. “The real problem is that the attitude of the students in clearing national-level exams. The number of engineers clearing GMAT and those clearing NET will be the least from the State,” said a senior official in the higher education department. “The students lack in attitude. The main reason is rote learning and the other being systematic lowering of standards of examinations to make it easier for students to score high,” he says.

May this reform bring some change in our Quality of Higher Education.