The Hindu : New Delhi News : Course restructuring raises eyebrows

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Course restructuring raises eyebrows

It should have been the long awaited revival of the basic science courses in Delhi University. But a day after the Academic Council approved of the proposal for the restructured B.Sc (General) courses, not everyone on the campus is celebrating what should have been the new beginning.

With a good majority here believing that scientific reasoning and logical questioning were not really used to formulate the B.Sc. (General) courses, it will be a wait of another year before students and teachers get to know if the changes actually make the study of basic science a more interesting subject or not.

Although the B.Sc. (Hons) courses remain more or less untouched, it is the changes in the B.Sc. (General) programme that are bringing in criticism. As per the restructured programme, the new B.Sc. (General) programmes will now have a common foundation course in the first year that will have close to ten subjects including one from the Humanities stream.

Teachers feel a common foundation course is uncalled for, as students joining an undergraduate science course are expected to be good at their basics and cannot afford to waste a whole year studying what they have already done in school. "The question is: was it needed and will it help the students in any way? If they had made the course a four-year one and then added the foundation course, it would have been better as students planning to go abroad for their studies would at least have had the requisite qualification," points out a teacher with a popular North Campus college.

The addition of Biology and Maths, feel many teachers, defies logic.

"If a student has decided that he does not want to study Biology or is not comfortable with Maths and decided to do his secondary education, what is the point in forcing him into studying the subject in college? Biology may be the subject for the future, but if a student has decided not to pursue it, then why force him or her?" asked another teacher.

What is also worrying colleges now is the infrastructural facilities. With lab and computer facilities not up to the mark in even the best of colleges, most are worried about falling short of the expected quality.

One of the main reasons for restructuring of the basic science courses may have been the drastic drop in the number of students applying for its courses, but teachers point out that instead of formulating a course that could ensure quality education and experience for those seriously interested in the sciences, the University is concentrating on getting students who join the sciences not out of choice but because of lack of option. Those opposing the new course may accuse the University of promoting mediocrity instead of excellence in science studies, but for science students who want to dabble in a bit of everything before making up their mind, this course might just be the one.

***

This is one B-school campus that obviously never sleeps. Premier business school XLRI Jamshedpur is now all set for its annual inter B-School Extravaganza, Ensemble, which takes off this coming Friday. With students from the country's top B-schools expected to take part in the festival, a week full of excitement awaits the otherwise busy student community here.

Lined up are a series of events that will test budding managers of various kinds.

The event will kick off with Xquizzite, with the flagship event being Assembly Xtreme, a multi-stage game designed to test the skills required of a general manager. This year would also see XLRI's finance club FINAX conducting an online finance quiz.

***

A three-day dialogue on "socio-economic and legal issues of Muslim women" ended at Jamia Hamdard (a deemed University) in Delhi on Wednesday. Inaugurated by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the three-day event saw a highlight on the social status of Muslim women within the social framework, educational and economic status of women and health status of women.

Also discussed were issues such as the inheritance rights of Muslim women; theory and practice, inheritance rights available to women; Islamic perspective, inheritance rights available to women in practice; Mehr and maintenance: theory and practice; right of Mehr available to women; and Islamic provisions and maintenance right.

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi