Four Senate members at the University of Calicut have approached Higher Education Minister R. Bindu against the move to launch four-year undergraduate degree programmes in colleges from the upcoming academic year.
In a memorandum to the Minister, P. Rasheed Ahammed, Abida Farooqui, Anwar Shafi, and K.T. Abdul Jabbar alleged that there had been an unwarranted haste in implementing the programmes as proposed in the National Education Policy 2020.
They said that while multiple entry and exit options were cited as a major attraction of these programmes, there are apprehensions about the practical problems in their implementation in a country like India. It is not advisable to implement the proposal in Kerala in hurry at a time even the Centre is planning to hold consultative meetings of stakeholders.
The Senate members claimed that though the State government was going ahead with its plan to launch the four-year programmes from June 2024, Boards of Studies in various universities had not taken any steps to revise the syllabus, which would require time. There was a plan to offer research facilities during the fourth year of the programme. No assessment, however, had been done as of now on the infrastructure required for the purpose in terms of labs and research rooms. The plan to use the existing PhD centres was not advisable as they were ill-equipped to take in more students.
At present, the student strength in UG classrooms is around 50. The skill-based and learner-centric approach of the new four-year programmes that focus on activity-oriented learning and learner participation may not work out well. Unless a fair student-teacher ratio is maintained and common classes are split, the courses would not serve their purpose.
The Senate members alleged that the academic world was clueless about the revision of postgraduate programmes, which are of two-year duration now. These new courses would also put additional pressure on universities in conducting exams. Even 14 years after the introduction of semester-based system, many universities are struggling to hold exams for the six semesters and publish results on time, they pointed out.
