Colleges Management Federation meets Minister for Higher Education Seeks Deferment of Common Admission Portal  

Amritsar, May 18 (Punjab Post Bureau) – A high level delegation of Non-Government Colleges Federation of Punjab and Chandigarh today met Punjab Cabinet Minister for Higher Education, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa seeking deferment of Common Admission Portal for next 2021-22 academic session. They said the new system being imposed was discriminatory, hitting autonomies of the Colleges and full of inherent flaws and Minister, after giving them a patience hearing, assured all help in this regard.

                   The deputation submitted a detailed memorandum to the Minister which apart from Common Admission Portal also pointed large-scale interference into the working of the Colleges by Education Department. The decreasing grants nomination of representatives in the Managing Committees of the Colleges was also discussed in detail and the Minister gave an assurance that they hold the College’s autonomy in high esteem.

                    The deputation was headed by Federation’s Vice President Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina who said the Minister was kind enough to listen to all their issues in detail and promised to resolve those within the stipulated time. “We are thankful to honorable Minister for patience-hearing on all the vital issues and promising to help us in every way”, said Chhina after the meeting.

                Other prominent Members of the delegation included Gurvinder Singh Secretary of the Federation, former Vice Chancellor GNDU, Dr. SP Singh senior Member of historic Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC) Bhagwant Pal Singh Sachar, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s Director (Education) Dr. Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal, Rakesh Dhir, Agneesh Dhillon from Dev Samaj Society and Principal of Lyallpur Khalsa College Jalandhar, Dr. Gurpinder Singh Samra. They also lauded the Minister’s assurance to address their grievances at the priority basis.

                The Federation had been critical of state government’s recent move to impose centralized Common Admission Portal for the Colleges falling under three Universities of Punjab including Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar. The move was being touted as an attack on the autonomies of the Colleges which will be ruinous for the education and trigger large scale harassment for the students, seeking admission in the Colleges.

           There was resentment that the new system was being imposed without even consulting the Colleges Managements, which are stakeholders in the case. There was a unanimity that the government must take back the decision as education was already passing through a fragile period due to Covid-19 and such centralization will prove to be detrimental for the future of the students will face harassments in the hands of the agents.

            The Federation said earlier such a system was introduced for common admissions for the B.Ed and Law Colleges in the state which had failed miserably and government was introducing the same obsolete system all Colleges.