DU History dept says no to semester system for 2011

The Head of Department of History,B Chatterjee,refused to comment in the matter. “I have not discussed the matter with the Vice-Chancellor yet. I can talk to you only after that,” he said.

Last week,Newsline had reported that History teachers had rejected the semester system in a general body meeting. While the CC has rejected the semester idea for this session,it is not yet known whether it is averse to implementing the system in the 2012-13 session.

Apart from stating that the rest of the present academic year is too short for overhauling the syllabus,the CC is reported to have also rejected the idea of bifurcating the current BA (Hons) syllabus as a stop-gap arrangement. Under V-C Dinesh Singh,the DU has envisioned undergraduate semesterisation as a gradual process. As a first step,the departments were asked to merely divide the annual syllabus into two so that it could be used in the semester mode.

The decision of the History department is significant as it is the first committee to reject the semester idea. The university administration has been encouraging CC meetings for discussing the issue. On the other hand,college teachers have been calling for general body meetings as they feel they are not adequately represented in the CC. GBMs,which comprise all teachers who handle the particular course — is not part of the DU statutes. It is a norm that has been developed over the years to gather the opinion of teachers of a particular course before going for its revision.

The DU is planning to implement the semester system for all undergraduate courses starting 2011 academic year.