Karnataka Government has decided to shut down 10 new universities that were established in the last 5 years. Mandya and Chamarajanagar Universities are two among the many new universities that were decided to be shut down. They will be merged with their parent universities. So Mandya and Chamarajanagar Universities will be merged with the University of Mysore.
This reminds me of an event mentioned in the novel Jugaari Cross written by Poornachandra Tejaswi. In the novel, the protagonist would be pursuing a course in a certain South Asian foreign language. The protagonist is one of the three students pursuing this course. The other three had taken up the course for getting a space in the university hostel. When the protagonist is asked by his friend as to why he had taken up a course that has no scope, the protagonist answers, “didn’t you read in the newspapers last year that India has signed an MoU with that foreign country? I am hoping that, due to this understanding, within the next 2-3 years the government may establish a department for this foreign language. And they may call for recruitment of lecturers.. At that point, I will be the only eligible candidate for the post. I will surely get a permanent government job.”
After this incident, there is no mention about what happens to his job prospects in the future. The story ends even before he completes his course. If this incident had happened in real, the government wouldn’t have established this department at all due to the lack of funds and he wouldn’t get a job! Even if the government had started the department, they would delay the recruitment for several years and by then this man would have lost hopes in this job or he would have crossed the eligibility age!
Now let me come back to the present situation where Karnataka Government has closed down some 10 new universities. I remember a few known people saying that these new universities would have recruitments soon and they would get some jobs there. There were senior professors who were appointed as VCs and officials in these universities. There were senior professors on the verge of retirement who were waiting to be recruited in these universities into positions of power, so that they could continue their service for a few more years. And they are all probably disappointed! Even I would have been disappointed if I had waited for these jobs.
The lesson to learn from this is: Indian education system is in a bad shape. Governments are not ready to invest money into education. If you are someone waiting to get into teaching field, this is not the right time. In fact, education field is the worst field to be in right now in India. You can’t trust government and its policies to offer jobs to you. Do your own thing and be self reliant.
