While strong efforts are being made by the Jammu University (JU) to take higher education at the doorsteps of the people through the new campuses which its has opened up in Jammu province in the past couple of years, its Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. Amitabh Mattoo has advocated a five-pronged approach for making higher education easily available to the students at their respective places. This five-pronged approach which is based on adopting five E’s includes Education, Employment, Economy, Enlightenment and Empowerment.
"What I believe is that through these five E’s- providing education for all, creating employment for our youth, benefiting economy, enlightenment and empowerment through education -we can do wonders for our society," says Professor Mattoo for whom reaching out to the youth in the entire Jammu region through the campuses has always been one of his priority areas.
"I believe that knowledge is power and is it is through education only that you are able to give a sense of freedom to the youth. Thus our youth will feel less disconnected from all kinds of Institutes of governance," says Professor Mattoo adding that it will also make students feel secure about their identity and prepare a new generation of people who have a stake in future and stability.
Jammu University has so far established four regional campuses in the region including Bhaderwah, Poonch, Udhampur and Kathua. The aim of setting up campuses at various parts of the state is to provide higher education to students from far-flung areas at their doorsteps.
Ask Professor Mattoo, one of India’s leading thinkers and writers on international relations, about providing education to each one of the students in their respective areas and here is what the internationally renowned strategic analyst says: "Essentially, I believe that the greatest strength of the state and its weakness are its youth. In J&K only, 30-40 lakhs of the youth are under the age of 30 and I have always believed that if properly groomed, these youth can contribute a lot in national building and they will be our greatest power."
However, what saddens the Vice chancellor who, in recognition of his services to the nation in the field of education was conferred one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padma Shri, early this year and is also a member of National Knowledge Commission, is the fact that most the youth of Jammu and Kashmir are alienated lot and the real challenge now lies in creating a knowledge-based society. And this, he adds, can be done by making all these campuses of Jammu University as centers of excellence so that the university can reach out and cater to the needs of the students and youth in these far flung areas of Jammu province.
According to Prof. Mattoo, it is basically like a solar system. JU’s main campus is like a Sun and then there are JU campuses which have their own satellite campuses also. For example, Bhaderwah campus has its satellite at Doda and Kishtwar while Poonch has its satellite at Surankote, Kathua has its satellite at Billawar and Reasi and Ramnagar are satellites for Udhampur campus.
All the Centres have started very well and the Bhaderwah campus is growing to be organized as one of the leading educational institution in the remote hill district Doda of the State. The campus was operating from hired buildings for the last two years but now has a beautiful campus which is entirely wi-fi. It offers Master’s courses in Business Administration, Information technology and English besides a three-month certificate course in computers for women. The first batch of MBA students have all got placed in leading corporations demonstrating that there has been no compromise in the quality of teaching despite difficulties in operating from a "Makeshift" campus.
"Our hope is through these campuses, we’ll be able to offer those programmes which will ensure hundred per cent employability. I believe there are five languages that you need to take care of for the better future of the student community. Firstly, English is important as a global lingua franca, then computers have also become very important, Mathematics is also languages of commons and then universal human values like tolerance, living together, peaceful co-existence, etc need to be taught and then there is your own mother tongue," says Professor Mattoo who has been on the Governing Council of the Nuclear Science Centre; a member of the Standing Committee of the Association of Indian Universities; and on the Executive Council of several Universities..
The dream of the Vice Chancellor is to provide jobs for all from Srinagar to Silicon Valley and this, he asserts, can be achieved by sustained education campaign for all. This process has been started. Perhaps, this is the reason that while the 2001 census showed literacy rate of Jammu and Kashmir at 55.5 % with male literacy rate being at 66.6 % and female at 43 %, a national sample survey carried out in 2004 said that the literacy rate in Jammu and Kashmir was at 65.33 % due to a sustained education campaign in the state.
As a great visionary, when he joined university six years ago, Professor Mattoo started thinking about this aspect of higher education in J&K. Though it took him three years of continuous thinking, what we see today is all these campuses which have revolutionized education in Jammu region.
"We first made JU as centre for excellence with all of its state of art infrastructure etc followed by starting building campuses. I believe that knowledge is power.This is the true Azadi – leading people from darkness to light. And that is why the logo of JU is Tamso Ma Jyotirgamya", says Professor Mattoo who himself is a great visionary.
Together, he says, we will help our energetic and talented youth – from some of the most distant areas of the state – participate in the country’s knowledge revolution. In short, the University of Jammu’s soft-power promises to be the state’s greatest strength in the months and years to come
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