Wasteful deviation

The wise and holistic utilisation of human resources is the primary and undeniable precondition of the overall development of any nation. What if Virat Kohli is compelled to play a Guitar instead of playing cricket? What if Udit Narayan is compelled to author storybooks instead of singing? What if a Judge of any court is compelled to do the works of a typist? Needless to say, these will bring perils and jeopardise the whole existing ecosystem everywhere. Almost the same is going on in the case of the professors teaching in colleges across the country. The professors who are supposed to delve deep and confine themselves in teaching, conducting research activities, professing new ideas, examining the existing framework of knowledge, executing the curriculum and programmes, and most importantly, contributing to the academic expansion of the broader discipline, are miserably compelled to confine their efforts and cognitive minds in furnishing database and associated works for the sake of institutional accreditation process by different institutions and frameworks like National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) and so on. However, the chief purpose of this article is neither opposing such initiatives as the accreditation process nor deriving an understanding of the quality status of the institution, nor does it pose questions about the need or essentiality of NAAC at all. Rather, it tends to raise questions about the way the whole process is being implemented or engages professors across the country in a job in which they are neither specialists nor are expected to be specialists at all.

In other words, it may be claimed that human resources are being misused or, to be more specific, disrupted in such a manner that ultimately harms the whole academic ecosystem, and needless to say, the students have become the most vulnerable victims of this organised process. Instead of professing ideas and generating new knowledge frameworks, the professors across the country, it would not be an exaggeration to claim, have become ‘well-paid Group-A clerks’, typists, data entry personnel, or other forms of non-teaching officers. In other words, the bizarre use of human resources, more specifically the way this process compels the professors to be engaged in non-academic and purely clerical works, is an organised crime against the interest of the students and broader academia.

However, the importance of such evaluations and the accreditation process can’t be denied. Established in 1994, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is an organised institution that assesses the academic, administrative, financial, and overall system of quality management for the holistic development of the academic ecosystem in higher education across the country. The basic objective, obviously, is noble, essentially significant, and the need of the hour in terms of ensuring the quality of academic as well as administrative services in higher education. Through the setting up of benchmarks, seven criteria, SWOT (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat) analysis, and qualitative as well as quantitative matrices, the NAAC under the University Grants Commission (UGC) conducts a thorough accreditation process.

Nonetheless, the entire process has been suffering from multiple loopholes regarding its methods of execution. The benchmarks, parameters, and matrices—all, quite unscientifically, have been determined universally for the degree colleges which, it may be claimed, lacks minimum essence of rationality as colleges across the country are not equal in terms of physical infrastructure, human resource, communicative convenience and sources of revenue. Even the data verification and validation process is riddled with several loopholes that pose a serious threat to the sanctity and integrity of the whole process. The massive volume of clerical work, the rat race of documentation, and score-mongering cumulatively demand a strong and skilled human resource in the colleges and universities to successfully conduct the entire programme. But here comes the question of feasibility and execution. Due to a lack of desired human resources, especially the skilled human resources in such institutions, the professors, instead of focusing on their core specialised areas of research and teaching are compelled to spend their precious time and energy on such grossly unproductive jugglery of like preparing reports, collecting official data, documenting activities, preparing reports and the list goes on. This practice, which may be dubbed as ‘date banking’, is entirely non-teaching work and should be done by a board or such specified bodies.

What measure may be taken to restore this plunder of human resources properly without hampering the accreditation process under NAAC? The UGC, through the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, should establish an autonomous and dedicated organisation or similar body consisting of professional, skilled, and experienced employees who may take charge of accomplishing such work in collaboration with the concerned college or university. Such an organisation, with branches all over the country, may be the best recipe for this concern. The institutional arrangement for such specified work may recruit staff in the colleges and universities for the sake of accomplishing such works related to the accreditation process. Such institutional arrangement, it may be argued, is not only the demand of this crisis but also is the probable recipe for the restoration of the rampant plunder of human resources in the colleges and universities across the nation.

The writer is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Galsi Mahavidyalaya (Affiliated to the University of Burdwan), Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal. Views expressed are personal