Statistics to teach Maths students ? The absurdity of it all

May not exactly be a ‘storm’, for it is just The Sangai Express which has broken the story, carried it forward, but more than enough room has been created for certain uncomfortable questions to be raised. Just 24 hours after this newspaper carried the news story under the heading, ‘Home Science students can now apply for Economics post’, a number of retired Professors and those in the teaching profession came up with the one line question, ‘What is MPSC up to ?’. To the people calling the shots in the highest recruiting body of the State, the answer may come with the line ‘The revised notification for recruitment of 419 Assistant Professors’ is in accordance with the new National Education Policy (NEP), wherein the criteria of ‘Concerned Subject’ was replaced with ‘Concerned/Relevant/Allied Subject. Without going into the finer details of the new NEP, one wonders whether this line can answer something as basic as ‘How can  one who has finished her higher education in Home Science be expected to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students of Economics ? Moreover how can one expect a candidate who has done Statistics to teach students of Mathematics or a candidate from Public Administration and International Relations be expected to teach students of Political Science.’ Basic questions which anyone with a modicum of common sense can raise and raise it, as some retired Professors and young people in the field of academics have done. One wonders whether MPSC, the recruiting body will be in a position to answer the basic questions that have been raised. Not very long back, there was a reason why places of learning such as Delhi University used to dock some percentage points from candidates wishing to change stream, say a student from the Science stream in the plus 2 level, if and when they want to switch over to the Arts or Commerce stream for graduation. This was before admission was rationalised through the Common University Entrance Test conducted by the National Testing Agency ! The rational in the move of Delhi University is not lost on the people and this is where one is left wondering how MPSC will manage to work itself in a position to answer the queries raised by some retired Professors and young academicians. Making things more uneven and if one may add, more subjective, is the decision not to conduct a written test to recruit the Assistant Professors and instead rely on the marks scored by the candidates from the graduation level to the post graduation level, to the marks one scores in NET, whether the candidate has qualified for JRF, with each stage being awarded the marks worked out. And not all streams are on the same plane on the ‘scorable’ chart. So a candidate who has come from a Statistics background will be judged according to the marks he has scored in the said stages to be recruited as an Assistant Professor to teach Mathematics ! Or a Home Science graduate to teach Economics ! And the list goes on.  
Two stories on the same topic coming out on two consecutive days and MPSC has still not come out with an official stand on the matter. If the MPSC is under the impression that they have stuck to rules and regulations, as laid down by the new NEP, then it would be in the fitness of things to spell that out. Silence cannot be the better part of valour at this juncture for what one is talking about is the question of whether teachers who are qualified to teach a particular subject will be recruited or not. It was not so long back that the MPSC was in the news for all the wrong reasons, issuing the evening question papers during the morning session on examination day of the Manipur Civil Service Combined Examination. Something better is expected, but as pointed out here, if the subjects list has been prepared according to the new NEP, then it would be in the best interests of all to spell it out clearly to the people. Manipur at least deserves an explanation. Silence cannot be the answer. The MPSC does not formulate or work out the eligibility criteria of the candidates for it is just the recruiting body, is the stand adopted by the Controller of Examination of Manipur University. This is fine, but who framed the eligibility criteria or was it a case of the eligibility criteria spelt out by MU for admission to PhD programmes being wrongly taken as the eligi- bility criteria for recruitment to the post of Assistant Professors ? Answers are needed.