A year of protests, dharnas, and taking on the institution may have resulted in the rollback of the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) at Delhi University, but all has not ended well. The course material used under the FYUP has been retained; study and reading materials are not available; teachers are confused; and students have a tough task trying to make up for the loss of an entire year.
“There are still a lot of issues continuing to plague the students. When the courses were restructured, they were done with the express disapproval of the committee of courses. The Heads of Department were forced to endorse the same study material that was part of the four-year undergraduate programme; they also cut out tutorials from the entire course, which has left students disappointed since it is part of the undergraduate programme for the remaining batches,” said Delhi University Teachers’ Association president Nandita Narain, who teaches undergraduate Mathematics.
An entire year of the FYUP, dedicated mostly to foundation courses that had school-level courses on different subjects, has also had its effect.
“The former FYUP students, who are now in the second year, are not at the level that they should normally have been. There is a very vast syllabus that needs to be covered,” said English teacher Sanam Khanna, adding that extra classes and hard work apart there was the additional burden of trying to finish most of the syllabus by October under the semester system – to make it easier on outstation students.
“The situation is worrisome because most college libraries do not have the stock of the readings prescribed under the FYUP. The students are also nervous since there are no previous question papers to make a comparison or prepare themselves on the format of the questions,” said Ms. Khanna.
There is also some confusion on examinations, particularly whether it will be based on the texts or on the prescribed readings. “Teachers do not have clarity on this and so cannot really answer any of the questions that the students may have, and this has added to the confusion,” said Ms. Narain.
There has been no communication from the university on internal assessments. “There has been no notification and teachers do not know whether the assessments are to be done according to what was prescribed under the FYUP or under the old three-year system. I raised this issue at the executive council meeting, but to no avail,” said Physics teacher and executive council member Abha Dev Habib.
However, the status quo varies from department to department. “Some of the departments have been allowed to have more or less the same readings as the old three-year structure. There is no need for extra classes and students are coping well in my class,” added Ms. Habib.
