Eight eminent Teachers of DU counter the proposed 4 year UG programme in a note to HRD ministry

Updated on: Thursday, April 25, 2013

In an exhaustive note to the HRD ministry, eight eminent teachers of the Delhi University have punctured the claims the varsity authorities have been making about the proposed four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) from this academic session.

Making it clear that they are not against FYUP, the teachers — Shahid Amin (history), Aditya Bhattacharjea (economics), P K Dutta (political science), Satish Deshpande (sociology), Krishna Kumar (education), Uday Kumar (English), Shobhit Mahajan (physics) and Apoorvanand (Hindi) — said it should be deferred to July, 2014.

The note disputes DU's claim that FYUP was decided after adequate public discussion and debate. It says there was "no evidence of any formal public discussion" on FYUP before last September. Dissenting teachers said the "academic congress" at which the FYUP was discussed "makes no mention of it whatsoever in its official programme". There was no session and no individual presentation. Moreover, the congress was not open to public or even all members of the university. Several teachers who wanted to participate were not allowed to do so. In fact, there are no public document explaining the rationale behind FYUP.

Also, the 61-member task force was set up "through selective process". The VC selected members as individuals without applying general principles like deans of faculty, college principals or heads of departments. In the process, many teachers known for their work on pedagogy and curriculum were not consulted.

On the more fundamental issue of the structure of the new programme, the note points out the FYUP "clubs disparate groups with very different needs and capabilities into a single homogenous mass and subjects them to the same curricular requirements but offers them different exit points". The teachers have asked how different phases of the same curriculum can serve different pedagogical interests. FYUP for the first two years is a vocational course, applications-based disciplinary specialization in the third year and research-based specialization in the fourth year.

Countering the claim that FYUP is in tune with global best practices, the note says in the US, the two-year community college and four year liberal education and in the UK polytechnic and degree colleges are two distinct institutions. The shift from community colleges or polytechnics is permitted but is conditional. But under FYUP it seems students of community colleges and four-year degree students are in the same classroom taking the same course.

The note says only 19% of students take regular honours course. But FYUP by "subjecting all undergraduates to the same curriculum effectively proposes to impose a structure oriented for 19% on the remaining 81%."

Eight eminent Teachers of DU counter the proposed 4 year UG programme in a note to HRD ministry

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