Shillong, Jul 8: The teachers of North Eastern Hills University (NEHU) under the aegis of Meghalaya Tribal Teachers’ Association (MeTTA) and NEHU-Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) has demanded immediate appointment of qualified local tribal woman professor as Vice Chancellor of the University.
“We would remind the Union Government of its commitment towards NEHU objective of social, cultural, scientific and economic development of the tribal people of the Northeast and Meghalaya that calls for appointment of an acceptable, qualified and reasonably academically endowed person as VC, who can also strike the much needed gender balance in a predominantly matrilineal social context that provides the catchment for students and researchers in NEHU,†the MeTTA and NEHUTA stated.
The MeTTA and NEHUTA reiterated that the University needs a Vice-Chancellor who is familiar with the specific ethno-cultural and linguistic background of the state of Meghalaya and the northeastern region.
According to the association, NEHU needs a qualified Vice-Chancellor from the local community who is grounded in the specific reality of the University and its cultural context so that students coming from myriad ethnic, tribal and non-ethnic background of Northeastern region and other parts of the country can be given due care and attention.
According to the associations, the search cum selection committee for appointment of Vice-Chancellor has completed its job since long and the file is stuck at some administrative level without the new incumbent being announced.
The MeTTA and NEHUTA requested the Union Government and the newly appointed Minister of Education to consider the case of a tribal woman Professor, who figures in the consideration of the search cum selection committee.