Colleges open; are grievance redressal systems strong?

Kumaran P | NT

After all the commotion in schools and colleges across the State over the last few weeks, higher education institutions finally reopened for physical classes by taking all necessary measures in the campuses. However, students allege that their institutions do not have a Student Grievance Redressal System.

University Grants Commission (UGC) over the last two years has been pressing the higher education institutions to have a system like an online portal wherein students can seek help or sort out things when necessary with the authorities. The UGC (Redress of Grievances of Students) Regulations, 2019 published the Official Gazette on May 6 2019. The Regulations were also sent out to all varsities and instructed that within three months of the published Regulation the institutions should set up the process. The UGC said that there should be an online portal where any aggrieved student may submit an application seeking Redressal of the grievance.

A student said, “Even after the college has begun despite many topics that are being discussed on TV channels, there are times we feel we need to tell someone in the college. There is no place we can go to complain, go seek help. There is a lot of commotion happening within the minds of the students and it’s creating a bad vibe. There should be some kind of portal that we all can reach out to.”

This is when NT tried to reach out to many students who pointed out that they absolutely do not have any system in the college where students can pour their heart out and seek help through grievance portals.

Pankaj, another student from a private engineering college in Yelahanka said, “Even if there’s an issue with the toilet or be it the classroom teaching there is no way that we could reach out and there’s no issue solving in our campus. We come, attend classes and tests and we go back. However, things are, it exists without any questioning or any room for improvement. There are students who want to go and tell their grievances, but there isn’t one place.”

It might be recalled that, Department of Education (Primary and Secondary) in Karnataka two years ago said that they will open up a 24/7 cell w h i c h will hear out problems of all stud e n t s r i g h t f r o m their fees, uniforms and any other issues that they face. The idea was well received by the educationists and parents, but in reality, this helpline number or a portal did not see light in the department.

Surprisingly, few colleges defended saying that there is a regular system. Professor Sadashivegowda, Principal at Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering said, “At Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, we have a student’s grievance cell from the past 8 years. We have multilevel meetings with class representatives and student representatives. We conduct a monthly CR meeting where the class representatives raise various issues faced by students which will be discussed, be it issues pertaining to LCD projectors, washrooms and dustbins. We ensure that these issues will be addressed within a week and minutes of the meeting report will be shared to the class representatives. This system has proven to help to a great extent.”

“We also conduct Continuous Assessment Meetings (CAM) at department level in case issues pertaining to exams, uncovered portions in the syllabus etc… arise and facilitate remedial classes, tutorial classes etc.. as a solution,” he added.

“We also have a strong mentor and mentee relationship. In cases where students are facing personal issues such as financial issues, they meet their mentors seeking for a solution. Mentors discuss these issues with the concerned HODs or with me (Principal). We explore possible solutions such as scholarships and ensure that the student’s education is not hampered,” he said.