The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bid to promote curriculum as a process rather than a structure

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 19, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Bid to promote curriculum as a process rather than a structure

The last couple of years have seen Delhi University revise as many as 41 of its courses, a step that the University openly admitted to being long overdue. Only, while the revisions saw both appreciation and criticism come the Administration's way, none perhaps saw the kind of debate and discussion as the restructured BA programme.

Clearly the most talked about course on the campus, one of the significant aspects of the programme has been its inter-disciplinary nature.

And delving into the role and future of inter-disciplinary courses will be a two-day conference to be held by Gargi College this coming week.

With the new courses aiming to transform existing pedagogical patterns, some of the questions that the conference will seek to raise will be whether inter-disciplinarity can complement specialisation, ways in which departmental functions can be reinvented to transcend the "customary turf battles over ownership of specified areas of knowledge'' and how to promote the idea of the curriculum as a process rather than a structure.

Also deliberated will be the new skills that teachers will need to acquire.

The conference on "Integrating Knowledge: The Challenge of Interdisciplinary Studies" at India International Centre on January 24 and 25 will see a number of distinguished speakers.

Sponsored by the University Grants Commission, the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, the Indian Council of Historical Research, the British Council, Air India and Indian airline, the conference will see national and international experts speak on the subject.

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Adopting a different approach to dealing with gender-based violence, Jamia Millia Islamia University's Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women's Studies recently decided to involve men in the fight against domestic violence.

A special project put together by the centre in collaboration with a non-government organisation, Prayatn, saw the formation of a youth brigade to curb gender-based violence in their community.

About 25 students were selected for the final training programme conducted in Jamia from January 3 to 7 in the Department of Social Work.

The training was aimed at increasing male involvement in gender sensitisation programmes, thereby bringing about a change in their behaviour and attitude as well as to equip them with the knowledge of legal system to combat instances of violence in the private realm.

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PT Education organised a national level series `GK Atlas' for students preparing for the group discussion and personal interviews for the recent CAT examination.

The Delhi edition of the five-lecture series that started on January 7 will continue till February.

Specially conceived for the benefit of students preparing for GDs and Personal Interviews, following the recent CAT examinations, the lecture series is presented in a multi-media format.

Focusing on raising the general awareness level of the participants and updating them with the burning issues of the day, the series will also see an analysis of currently active topics including economic reforms, leadership, advertising and marketing.

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

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