Delhi, the capital city, is in news yet again. Are you saying, 'What is so great? After all, the national capital! Would be in the news, anyways'? Well, let me mention the two reasons why I am referring to Delhi thus. May be, you, too, would find the statement newsworthy.
The first refers to the NTA NET subject specific questions. Well, the NET English Lit exam was conducted yesterday, and, boy, was there a furore! Well, it is always argued that the NET is tougher than the SET, anyways.
I would not know. I have never appeared for the SET, while I have twice cleared the Eng Lit NET, with the JRF/SRF. Both my attempts, moreover, were the analytical, critical essay types, not the current easy MCQ way. The essay questions used to be set by professors from top universities such as the Delhi Univ, the Jadavpur Univ, the JNU, the BHU, for instance. Huge authenticity the exam would have for SURE!
As for the SET, those in the know always grumble about all sorts of malpractices, indirect question leak, 'adjusting' the result, et al. I have absolutely zero knowledge about any such issues as I never ever tried the SET. Nor did I need it, given my NET score.
Well, I do have a solid problem with the current MCQ nature of the NET. For one thing, it gets reduced to be more of a lucky guesswork. How/why can such a qualifying test be a mere/more memory test? Lecturers need to analyse, explicate, clarify. Their hold over the language has to be near perfect, especially when it comes to Humanities, Social Sciences, languages, and especially, literature.
Well, the hoo-haw yesterday was about the difficulty level of the test! Well, if you are going to be teaching literature/language, your own hold over both the content/medium has to be real good! As it is, most PG (Distance Mode, eh?) students boast of rarely attending lectures! Their awareness of the width/breadth/scope is almost nil as answers are often guide (of the guide books or of the AI variety)-based.
Given such products, there are lecturers/professors who are "Ph.D. degree holders", but cannot form a single correct sentence in English, forget orally, not even in writing! Their use of tenses is simply wonky. Articles are noteworthy by absence, for instance.
How they could get a doctorate is itself worth serious research. Well, I have heard a research "guide" repeatedly boast that his student(s) provide him with "everything" in an apartment upstairs, and voilà, within a week, the thesis is ready!!!As it is, theses are mostly sent to external examiners who are 'friends', and it is a give-n-take every which way!
Sobbingly people talk of their village school/college days, poverty, tough life, et al. Why hurry then for a doctorate or for a lecturer's plum position? Why not first work on the language at least, if not the content? If you pretend to write the thesis in English, there possibly cannot be basic errors from the title page onwards, right? Even after decades and decades after "finishing" the doctorate, your language is not much to write, forget home, anywhere about, what gives you the right to guzzle huge salaries, without sincerely conducting lectures either?
If your research does not even mention basic well-known resources in the area, what kind of research is it? In other words, at some point or the other, there has to be some quality check. The NET has to have a higher level of difficulty, like the GRE, for instance.
Sure, the NET should be more analytical, explanatory, short notes/essay question types. The MCQ quotient should be minimal. There, in brief, have to be some stringent measures though that grant some basic minimum quality to being a lecturer, beyond the "connects/contacts, caste/creed, money and leaks" concoction! May be, the NET could clarify the exact portion with more precision.
Students cannot go down the 'i want a fat pay cheque without much ado ' lane, while trying to be a lecturer. If they want to teach in an English medium college, their own English HAS to be good! They cannot argue for easy questions in a qualifying test!
Similarly, whatever happened in the JNU this morning is a shame, too. For the sake of an undertrial whom the court considers not worthy of a bail, you cannot target the PM, the HM! It is stated openly, moreover, that the delay tactics are by the lawyers of this poster boy of the "kabr khudegi" and "tukde tukde" gang. Moreover, this sub judice case may attract a Mamdani, but there CANNOT be any interference in the sovereign matters of a country. Period!
And why the attack on a specific colour, please? The colour is not merely political, party specific. And, oh, yes, how about the atrocities committed against the minorities in Bangla Desh? Would the JNU types (who give a bad name to Marx whose books, who knows if they have actually read) roar for "digging a grave" of the perpetrators in Bangla Desh? Injustice is injustice, and cannot be conveniently (mis)quoted!
Pratima@A wrong is a wrong is a wrong!
Quote of the day: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, " argues Martin Luther King.
Word of the day: Opportune. 'Opportune' is an adjective which means suitable, favorable, or well-timed for a particular purpose, often suggesting a moment that leads to success. It describes, in brief, something happening at the right moment, making it advantageous.
Let us learn grammar: Just as we should learn when we must use the articles, we must know when not to use the articles. When referring to the primary function of places like school, college, university, temple, hospital, prison, we need not use any articles. Let me give an easy to remember example. Kasab went to jail (primary function as he is a convict), but the journalists went to the jail to interview him. 2)I am a lecturer. I go to college to teach. My students' parents come to the college to watch the dhol performance. 3)She is a doctor. She goes to hospital. The relatives of the patient visit the hospital
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