arindam ganguly
post news network
Bhubaneswar, Nov 30: Japanese language classes at Utkal University are suffering from a severe faculty crunch. The course, which had started off with a pair of teachers, is now handled by only one lecturer and the number of hours handled has fallen.
The anthropology department of Utkal University had started the free course October 29, 2015, as a pilot project supported by the state government. Students taking the course were provided help to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test held July each year.
For the first batch, only research scholars were allowed to apply, and 15 students enrolled. The department had plans to allow postgraduate students to apply from the coming year.
In the first year, Prasanna Patra, an associate professor with department of anthropology of Utkal University, and Naveen Panda of Delhi University had been handling classes.
But now the latter handles lectures infrequently and Patra, who has worked in Japan for many years, handles classes alone.
The HoD of Anthropology Upali Aparajitha said the dearth of lecturers was affecting the course and that they were using part-time faculty to cover gaps. “We need full-time lecturers to devote total attention to the course,” Upali said.
According to the HoD, the department of anthropology had started the course in keeping with a rule that universities should have a department for language learning. But the course is left wanting for lecturers and this is preventing students from attending classes although they are keen on learning the language.
Professor Prasanna, the sole full-time lecturer handling classes now, said the then special secretary of higher education department had assured a sum of Rs11 lakh annually, including fees, for the lecturers. But the promise “has not been kept”.
The lack of teachers is stopping the department from increasing enrollment as it would disturb the student–teacher ratio.
The office of the vice-chancellor said it has given a proposal to the state government asking for the language course to be reassigned to Directorate of Distance and Continuing Education. The proposal, too, is pending clearance.
Prasanna says language training is very important and improves job prospects of the students. “Training in a language can help you land a good job in the government as well as the private sector. Training in languages such as Japanese, German and French are popular nowadays,” Prasanna said.
Given that Orissa has several Buddhist sites that draw tourists from Japan, Prasanna believes, learning the language will “immensely help from the tourism point of view”.
Students Orissa POST spoke with were also worried by the unavailability of lecturers and other training material.
Gyanendra Kumar Dhir, a research scholar from the anthropology department and student, said: “Knowing a foreign language gives you an idea of the culture and history of a people and that is the main reason I was interested in joining the course. But now we do not have lecturers to handle classes.”
Manas Sahoo, too, had joined the course out of interest for learning another language. “I had aimed at finding a better job using skills in this language as the relations between Japan and India are improving and will, in turn, improve job and investment opportunities in both countries,” he said, while echoing Gyanendra.
Professor Kishore K Basa, the director of self-financing courses at Utkal University, said the pilot project was started considering the popularity of the course among students.
He said the university had failed to implement its plans to bolster the course this year owing to a visit by the NAAC team. “In the next academic year, we will try to recruit lecturers and restart the course in the self-financing mode,” he said.