Omar Abdullah Slams Opening of New Colleges in J&K
Srinagar, Oct 25: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday raised serious concerns over the government’s decision to open dozens of new degree colleges across the Union Territory, calling the move poorly planned and unfair to students.
Speaking at the valedictory session of a two-day conclave on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 at Amar Singh College, Srinagar, Abdullah said that the rush to establish new colleges had not achieved its intended purpose.
“Have we really done justice with our students by opening so many degree colleges? In some places, the number of students in a college is even less than in a higher secondary school. There are colleges where teachers outnumber students,” he remarked.
The Chief Minister said that while the idea of “education at the doorstep” sounded good, it had not translated into meaningful outcomes. “Accessibility is important, but not at the cost of quality. Somewhere, we have failed to strike the right balance,” he said, urging the government to review the policy and its impact on education quality.
Abdullah criticised what he called arbitrary planning and political pressure behind the mushrooming of new colleges. “It seems colleges were opened without proper criteria or planning. If one area got a college, nearby villages started demanding one too. At this rate, we will end up with a college in every locality. We are playing with the future of our children,” he warned.
Turning to the NEP’s Design Your Degree (DYD) programme, Abdullah praised it as a progressive reform that breaks away from India’s long-standing rote learning culture. “For years, education in our country meant memorising textbooks and reproducing the same answers in exams. The DYD model encourages creativity and flexibility,” he said.
He also pointed out that earlier, graduates often struggled to meet job requirements. “Companies would say that it took nearly a year to make new recruits unlearn what they had studied. That shows how disconnected our education system had become from real-world skills,” he noted.
Abdullah said the new framework allows students to customise their degrees according to their career goals. “During my time, we were forced to choose a stream decided entirely by the institution. Today’s students can combine theoretical learning with practical skills, which has greatly boosted their confidence,” he added.
