|
NSS-A Brief History Ever since independence there has been growing awareness of the desirability involving students in national services. The first Education Commission (1950) recommended the introduction of national service by students on a voluntary basis. Subsequently, on the basis of suggestions of the then Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, a committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Dr. C. D. Deshmukh to prepare a scheme for compulsory national service by the students prior to their admission for degree courses. Prof K. G. Saiyidian, who undertook a study of national service by youth in several countries, recommended that national service may be introduced on a voluntary basis. A similar recommendation was made by three Education Commission appointed under the Chairmanship of Dr. D. S. Kothari. In April 1967, the Conference of State Education Ministers recommended that at the university stage, students could be permitted to join the National Cadet Corps which was already in existence on a voluntary basis and an alternative to this could be offered to them in the form of a new programme called the National Service Scheme (NSS). Promising sportsmen however should be exempted from both and allowed to join another scheme called the National Sports Organisation (NSO), in view of the need to give priority to the development of sports and athletics. The conference of Vice Chancellors in September 1967 welcomed this recommendation and suggested that a special committee of vice chancellors should be set up to examine this question in detail. The details were soon worked out and the planning commission sanctioned an outlay of Rs 5 crore for developing the NSS during the 4th year plan as a pilot project. In pursuance of these recommendations, the ministry of education introduced the National Service scheme during 1969-70. The choice of the timing of its introduction was remarkably suspicious as 1969 was the birth centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi – the Father of Nation to whom social service was almost a religion. The response of students to the scheme has been excellent. Starting with an enrollment of 40,000 thousand students in 1969, the coverage of NSS students has increased every year. Now over 8 lacs students have joined NSS in the current year. The scheme now extends to all the states and universities in the country. Students, parents, guardians, persons in authority in government universities and colleges and people in general now realize the need and significance of NSS. It has aroused among the student youths an awareness of the realities of life and a better understanding and appreciation of the problems of the people. NSS is thus a concrete attempt in making education relevant to the needs of the society. It is in this endeavor that National Institute of Technology in its status as deemed university w.e.f. October 17th 2002 resolved in its first meeting held on July 29th 2003 to adopt NCC/NSS/NSO as a mandatory requirement in the B. Tech. 1st curriculum as a non-credit course having upto 100 contact hours requirements for the students at the starting of 1st year of their four year B.Tech. Course. The idea behind this is to follow the government policies in letter and spirit as well as to inculcate in the “would be engineers”, a sense of discipline, integrity, ethics, moral values and public service. |
|
 | |
|
 |