College students to get marks for survey on dropouts, teachers want them to focus on tests

GURGAON: The department of higher education in Haryana is engaging college students to collect data on youngsters who are aged between 18 and 25 years and are out of the formal education system.
The students are conducting door-to-door surveys for which they will get marks for social service under the National Service Scheme (NSS), said Rajiv Rattan, the director of higher education.
The department recently asked colleges and universities to increase the number of students involved in collecting the data to accelerate the process.
However, professors have protested the move, saying colleges must focus on ongoing semester examinations.
According to the department, colleges must create dedicated WhatsApp groups and add all those involved in the surveys. Also, principals must submit a daily report of the surveys to their respective directorate of higher education officers (DHEOs), who will compile them and hand over an overview to the headquarters daily.
Rattan told TOI, "The process is underway and would add to the project of the Haryana government of finding out the number of students who are out of the formal education system and their occupational status."
"The district higher education officials have been appointed as nodal officers, and the principals as nodal officers for the respective colleges. We have constituted committees at the colleges to ensure that professors and students complete the job smoothly," said Rattan.
The door-to-door survey includes asking youngsters about their occupational status, skill gap, and educational qualification.
The department has provided the college students and teachers conducting the surveys with tablets to upload the collected data, which will get tagged on Parivar Pehchan Patras.
When contacted, Amit Chaudhary, the president of the Haryana Government College Teachers' Association, said, "It seems the directorate of higher education (DHE) has forgotten that its job is to manage quality higher education and not to train teachers for non-academic tasks. Further, the DHE has also overlooked that the teachers and students are now busy with the semester exams."
Incidentally, school education minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar announced last month that academicians would not get non-teaching work to keep them focused on teaching students. In response to teachers demanding relief from clerical tasks, he said he would discuss the matter with senior officials.