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Women leaders have shaped Kashmir’s cultural, educational fabric: VC KU
Vice Chancellor Kashmir University, Prof. Nilofer Khan, Wednesday said women leaders, particularly in Kashmir, have played a foundational role in shaping the region’s cultural, educational and social fabric. Addressing the “Women Edupreneurs Connect 2026”, organised by the Private Schools Association Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) at the MERC Auditorium, Prof. Khan called for greater opportunities for women to lead and innovate in the education sector. She said the initiatives like “Women Edupreneurs Connect 2026” are aimed at empowering women and are vital for building progressive, inclusive and future-ready educational institutions across J&K. “These visionary women have not only enlightened society through their leadership, but their dedication has played a transformative role in shaping generations,” she said, She further added that women in Kashmir have historically contributed significantly to the development of society. Referring to the legacy of 14th-century mystic poet and spiritual reformer Lal Ded (Lalleshwari), Prof. Khan said the wisdom of women had helped take Kashmiri society from an earlier era to an enlightened present. She said Lal Ded’s Vakhs played a foundational role in shaping Kashmiri literature and cultural consciousness while promoting spiritual and moral values, self-realisation and interfaith harmony. Prof. Khan highlighted the contribution of women at KU and said that women including teaching and non-teaching faculty, scholars and students had played a pivotal role in taking the institution to its present position. She said that the university recently achieved NAAC A++ accreditation and attained UGC Category-I status, which, she said, placed it among India’s leading higher educational institutions with enhanced academic, administrative and financial autonomy. Prof. Khan said the varsity was committed to creating an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs by supporting them through different stages, from idea development and pre-incubation to incubation. She also said the university’s Directorate of Lifelong Learning, NewGen and the Centre of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship were providing training, mentorship and support to women seeking to establish entrepreneurial ventures. “3,380 women have been empowered through women empowerment programmes conducted by the Directorate of Lifelong Learning during the last five years,” she said. She added that 261 women had been trained through certificate programmes in community health, with several subsequently working at the mid-level in the health sector. She added that the varsity recently incubated women innovators and provided them seed funding to establish startups. Prof. Khan also recalled the contributions of women educators and social reformers, including Padmashree Mehmooda Ali Shah, Begum Zafar Ali, Atika Bano and Professor Neerja Mattu, for advancing girls’ education, social reform and women’s empowerment. She further added that minister for education Sakina Itoo, who was present at the event, was a “perfect role model and inspiration” for women seeking to bring positive change to society, citing her contribution in social welfare, healthcare, school education, higher education and other priority sectors. The VC congratulated PSAJK for recognising women education leaders of J&K and called for a collective effort to create an educational and social environment where women could “dream, innovate and lead with confidence.” She stressed that the development of both government and private educational institutions was essential for preparing the younger generation to meet future challenges. Earlier in his address, president Private Schools Association J&K (PSAJK) Nazrul Islam Baba said the initiative was conceived as the beginning of a broader movement to recognise the contribution of women in education. “Women Edupreneurs Connect is our humble attempt to celebrate their success, recognise their leadership and provide them with a platform where they can connect, learn, collaborate and inspire one another,” he said.
‘41 NoCs not fair’: Government moves to ease approval process for private schools
Srinagar, Sep 9: The Jammu and Kashmir government is set to rationalise the approval process for private schools, with Education Minister Sakina Itoo saying the requirement of as many as 41 No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) is “cumbersome and unfair”. Speaking at the “Women Edupreneurs Connect 2026”, organised by the Private Schools Association Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) at the MERC Auditorium of the University of Kashmir, Itoo said the government had decided to reduce the number of approvals required for opening or extending private schools. “When I was a minister in 2008, two to four NOCs were required to open a school or seek an extension. Today, I found that 41 NoCs are being sought,” she said. The minister said the existing system requires applicants to approach numerous government offices and can take six months or even longer, creating difficulties for private school operators, particularly in matters relating to land and regulatory approvals. “Imagine how many offices you have to go to. It is not a small thing to take 41 NOCs,” Itoo said. She said the government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, had decided that the existing arrangement needed to be changed and that only essential and mandatory approvals would be retained. “Earlier, we had to take three NOCs, which were more necessary and mandatory. We will take those, but remove the rest,” she said. According to Itoo, the proposal has already been approved and is now at the final stage. “The file is already approved. The order will have to be brought to the Assembly first, where it will be passed, and then the order will come,” she said. The proposed changes are aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on private educational institutions and making the approval process less time-consuming. At the event, Itoo also spoke about the role of women in education and entrepreneurship, saying women in Jammu and Kashmir were increasingly occupying important positions despite facing social and professional challenges. “Our sisters are very intelligent. They have so much talent, but they also have a lot of difficulties,” she said, referring to criticism and social restrictions faced by women pursuing professional careers. The minister said women continued to face disproportionate scrutiny over their work and professional choices. “We still live in a male-dominated society. Even today, we are criticised and our work is targeted,” Itoo said. Urging women not to be discouraged by criticism, she said, “We should never be afraid. We should not back down. It is okay if we are criticised, but we have to move forward.” Itoo also cautioned against the misuse of social media, saying mobile phones had made it possible to damage a person’s reputation within a very short time. “If you want to defame someone, you can do it in two minutes. People are ready to do it,” she said, while urging women to remain focused on their work despite online criticism. The minister assured women entrepreneurs and educationists of government support and said she would be available to intervene on issues requiring attention at her level. She also called upon private educators and women working in the education sector to take a more active role in addressing substance abuse among young people. Itoo said teachers and school administrators were in regular contact with large numbers of children and were therefore well placed to identify early signs of addiction and provide counselling. “Today, in Indian society, a disease of addiction has spread which is destroying our generations,” she said. Urging educators to focus on prevention and early intervention, she said, “If you see anything like this in a child, you should definitely check it.” The minister stressed that timely counselling could play an important role in protecting young people and said women educators had a significant role in shaping the future of children. Itoo also urged organisers of similar programmes to provide more opportunities to women participants to speak about their experiences and concerns rather than limiting discussions to ministers and senior officials. “Some of you are very capable and can speak better than us. You should also get a chance to come here and tell us those things so that we can listen and work on them in the future,” she said. The event was attended by MLAs Said Ud Din Bhat and Salman Ali Sagar, University of Kashmir Vice-Chancellor Prof Nilofer Khan, PSAJK chairman Baba Nazrul Islam, Director School Education Kashmir, CEO Srinagar and other officials, besides representatives of private schools.
In Defence of the Cluster University
There is understandable affection for Kashmir’s historic colleges. S.P. College, Amar Singh College and Government College for Women are part of the Valley’s educational history and have shaped generations of students. But that affection should not force us into a false choice between preserving our colleges and retaining the Cluster University. We need both. The criticism of the Cluster model raises legitimate questions about administration, autonomy and academic performance. But these concerns do not, by themselves, establish that the University is an unnecessary layer. The more important question is: what has the Cluster University added to higher education in Srinagar that individual colleges could not easily provide on their own? The answer is significant. Created in 2016 by bringing together five existing colleges, Cluster University Srinagar was intended to pool their resources and create a larger, multidisciplinary academic institution. Its mandate went beyond conventional undergraduate teaching to include postgraduate, integrated, professional and research programmes. Today, the University offers programmes across the sciences, humanities, social sciences, management, technology, education and other emerging fields. The Cluster University did not simply create another office. It created another level of education. That distinction is at the heart of the debate. A college may provide excellent undergraduate education. A university can provide something more: postgraduate study, doctoral research, specialised teaching, interdisciplinary programmes and the institutional scale needed to sustain research and new disciplines. Cluster University Srinagar has steadily moved in that direction, including the development of research and doctoral programmes. For students, this is not a minor administrative change. It means a wider academic horizon: more subjects, more pathways and more opportunities to move from undergraduate study towards advanced learning and research within one broader academic ecosystem. The suggestion that becoming part of a university necessarily destroys a college’s identity is equally questionable. St. Stephen’s College and Lady Shri Ram College remain distinctive and highly regarded institutions within the University of Delhi. They have retained their names, traditions, academic cultures and internal structures while operating within a larger university framework. Being part of a university does not mean ceasing to be a college. The same principle can apply in Jammu and Kashmir. Our constituent colleges can retain their identities while developing distinctive academic strengths within the Cluster University. S.P. College can build on its scientific tradition; Amar Singh College can strengthen its humanities and liberal-arts profile; other constituent institutions can develop their own areas of excellence. That is not institutional dilution. It is specialisation within a larger academic ecosystem. There is another misconception worth challenging. Autonomy and university membership are not opposites. The Cluster Universities Act itself envisages constituent colleges as important institutional units and provides for their participation in university governance. The answer, therefore, is not to assume that college autonomy requires dismantling the University. It is to ensure that the university structure actually allows meaningful participation and decision- making at the college level. The larger question is what kind of higher education Jammu and Kashmir needs. The answer cannot be a return to a system in which colleges are largely confined to traditional undergraduate education. Young people today need access to postgraduate study, professional programmes, technology, interdisciplinary learning, research and new fields of knowledge. The Cluster model was created precisely to widen that academic horizon. This is also consistent with the broader direction of higher-education policy. The National Education Policy 2020 calls for multidisciplinary universities and higher-education clusters while also emphasising institutional autonomy and stronger research. Scale and autonomy are not contradictory goals. The case against the Cluster University therefore needs to demonstrate more than administrative inconvenience. It needs to demonstrate that the academic gains created by the University could be achieved better through fragmentation into separate institutions. That case has not yet been made. Of course, the University should be judged honestly. Student services, infrastructure, faculty strength, research output and administration all matter. But there is a crucial distinction between saying “the Cluster University has problems” and saying “the Cluster University has no purpose.” The first may be true. The second does not follow. We should not measure the success of a university by the number of offices it has created, but by the opportunities it creates for students. On that measure, Cluster University Srinagar has already expanded the educational landscape beyond what the earlier college structure offered. The debate, therefore, should be reframed. The choice is not between historic colleges and the Cluster University. It is between a fragmented higher-education system and one in which our existing institutions can grow together. Our historic colleges should retain their identity, character and traditions. But they should also be part of a larger academic enterprise capable of taking students from undergraduate education to postgraduate study, research and new fields of knowledge. The Cluster University was conceived to expand the possibilities of our colleges, not to diminish them. Its real test is not whether it has replaced the old institutions, but whether it has enabled them to do more. On that measure, the story is far from over. We do not need fewer academic ambitions. We need a university system large enough to realise them. That is the idea worth defending. Jammu and Kashmir does not have to choose between preserving its educational legacy and building its academic future; the Cluster University gives us an opportunity to do both. Dr. Rutba Peerzada teaches in P.G Department of Political Science, Cluster University of Srinagar.