With DU admission season nigh,Class XII students look for clarity

“Nearly all universities abroad require you to have four years of undergraduate study. Additionally,because of the research papers,my statement of purpose while applying for higher education will carry more weight as foreign universities value research above all else,” Abhijat Langer,a Class XII student of Delhi Public School,said.

Others,however,said there was a “sense of uncertainty” in the air.

“There is a great deal of confusion. One day I read in newspapers that the four-year format is coming in place and,the next day,there are reports on professors themselves speaking against it. In this vitiated atmosphere,I might consider going to either Kolkata or Mumbai to study,” Vipul Khullar,another Class XII student,said.

School teachers too bemoaned the lack of clarity and said they were finding it difficult to answer students’ queries. “With a complete change in the way the course is structured and the short time-span in which the syllabi are being constructed,deferring the four-year course by at least a year seems like the right thing to do,” a teacher of St Columba’s School said.

As for greater employability,companies are in a wait-and-watch mode.

A representative of an MNC said,“At least for the next two years,we will be recruiting products of the existing system. While it is too early to tell if schemes like the foundation courses will work,it seems prudent to teach data analysis and basic mathematics to every student. In principle,the move is something that will increase their utility for us.”