The demand for SSU is at its peak right now. In this post I am gonna write my opinion on the same
What do I know about Sikkim State University (SSU)?
SSU Act was passed by the SLA in the year 2003 and it was amended in the year 2017 and in July 2018 the vice-chancellor of SSU was appointed. There are primarily two departments (Nepali and Sanskrit), that are being run in the SSU. The main building is in NBBDC Tadong. The Nepali department is being Run in Tadong, while the sanskrit department is being run in Samdong.
What are our demands as Students?
Our demand and a sincere request to the government is as simple as follows-
- Proper functioning of the SSU with almost every department that can be run in the state
- Appointment of proper and qualified teachers to take PG classes.
- Adequate funding for proper functioning of SSU.
- Proper basic infrastructure for SSU
Why are these demands important and require immediate action?
Every year over 300 students graduate from a single department in Sikkim, while the seats in the only proper functioning University (SU) which happens to be a Central University, is around 30 for each Department, out of which some percentage of seats is reserved for outstation students, while some percentage is reserved for us and some seats are contested, so approximately 300 students of Sikkim are having to compete with outstation students for 30 seats. Even if we look at only Sikkimese student's the ratio of student to seat will be 10:1 now what happens to those students that fail to get into SU? They apply for B.Ed where also seats are minimal and over 2000 students contest for it. Lately PG class are being run by SSU in the premises of NBBDC for various subjects, but lack of proper faculty fails to gain confidence of the students.
We saw this year the condition of our students after completing UG, with over 10000 students returnees and many of them testing positive for n-covid-19. We could see the poor condition of education in our state.
Students after failing to get admission in the SU have no option than to go out of the state for the education enhancing the already high GDP of other states.
Those that can afford still go to other states for completing their education, but those that can't are forced to cut their education journey short, it feels like they are being deprived of proper education.
What are the advancements of the Government till now?
In March there was a protest for SSU just before the lockdown, as a response to which government gave two types of assurance, a written assurance that granted VC the autonomy, appointment of Registrar, finance officer and Controller of Examination that was lacking previously, and a few verbal Assurances, like building proper infrastructure and proper funding.
What do we expect from the Government?
We understand that the current upsurge in the number of positive cases in the state has created more important issues to deal with for the Government, and like us every other state and our nation is fighting a pandemic, which did not stop the government from laying Foundation stone for Ram Mandir despite Central Home minister himself testing positive for the virus.
We expect our state government to do the same and lay the foundation stone to our temple of education. "Rome was not built in a day", we understand that building a University is a long process but to complete a building the first step is to start. As an immediate course of action we expect our government to appoint proper and qualified teachers to take PG classes for every subject and temporally run classes in the vacant rooms of government colleges all over state till the basic infrastructure of SSU is built.
What is our role as students?
When our demand for something is delayed by our parents do we go on strikes and protest and start raising our voice or do we keep on asking politely and peacedully? The current scenario is the same, the current government has always vowed to work for the students and the future. We treat them as parents and keep on asking for our demands to be fulfilled soon. I have seen posts of a few individuals and organisations announcing protests, I would request all my friends to not be tempted by such posts we are students and we are most suited on the benches of the classroom than on the streets. Let us peacefully demand for SSU to our respectful government.
This post is not political, it's just a voice of a common student
We are hopeful and we expect our Government to not let us down
#SSU