DU plans more changes to 4-year programme

Allotment of marks for foundation courses to be changed,focus on projects: University

At a time when Delhi University is trying to cope with the switch to the four-year undergraduate programme,the university administration is planning to introduce more changes to the course structure. Modifications,university officials said,might be introduced in the evaluation scheme of the 11 compulsory foundation courses.

Each of the compulsory foundation courses in the four-year format carry 75 marks. Under the existing system,35 marks have been allotted for continuous evaluation of projects and 40 for an end-of-semester written examination.

We dont want textbook centred learning. The emphasis of the four-year course is on activity-based learning,to encourage analytical thinking. Continuous evaluation of project work,class interaction,group activities become more important than the end-of-semester examination, a senior university official said.

According to university officials,the revised scheme would allot 55 marks for projects and two marks to the end-of-semester examination. More credit will be given to presentations and projects. The changes,however,will be made only after receiving suggestions from teachers across colleges and after seeking approval from the statutory bodies, the official said.

Some teachers,however,say there is a larger agenda behind the changes. This can be seen as a step towards autonomy of colleges de-linking them from the university system. While the idea sounds very good,it brings to fore the issue of standards. The marking scheme in colleges across the university will not be the same. This will lead to a need for accrediting colleges, an English teacher said.

Despite conducting orientation sessions with teachers,sections of teachers allege that there is a lot of confusion about how to teach these subjects.

To teach the foundation courses,the university administration had directed colleges to bring together students enrolled in different disciplines into one class. However,several colleges state that it has been difficult to follow these directives.

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We had been asked by the university to have heterogeneous classes for foundation courses. The letter came after the time-tables had been made. It was difficult to change the time-table accordingly. So,the foundation courses are being taught to a homogeneous group, a teacher from a South Campus college said.

Following the reservations that have been expressed over the foundation course curriculum and the books on the subjects,the Vice-Chancellor has called a meeting of teachers teaching the foundation courses on August 14.