BENGALURU: Colleges in Bengaluru started classes under the National Education Policy (NEP) curriculum from October 12, but teachers say they are confused and barely prepared for implementation of the policy.
This new curveball is being thrown at them after more than a year of meeting their students for face-to-face classes, and with the syllabus arriving just a day before colleges reopened, the transition to offline classes is all the more difficult.
Lecturers from autonomous and affiliated colleges under Benglauru City University fear that students would be guinea pigs this year, with no clear plan on implementation of NEP. For instance, Sudha, principal of Vijaya College, Jayanagar, learned on Tuesday that Mathematics would be incorporated into Physics in the coming days.
Lecturers are worried as they have been told this is the first of many steps towards implementation of NEP, and since classes have already started, teachers should have been thoroughly trained and oriented. One of the participants of the five workshops held, rued that these forums did not allay any doubts the teachers had. “There are a number of on ground issues, and we are supposed to answer our students, but we have no answers,” said the lecturers. “Even three to four months of studying the policy document has left lecturers like us, who hold Masters and PhD degrees, clueless,” said a senior faculty member of a private college.
Asked which model of NEP would be implemented, speakers said it would be detailed soon.
Prof Laxman from Vivekananda Degree College, sought clarity whether the rule of a minimum of 15 students registering for a subject, for it to be taught, was applicable to ‘open electives’. To which T D Kemparaju, former vice-chancellor of Bengaluru North University (BNU) responded that talks are on to finalise the minimum number of students needed to run the course.
Open electives are a tricky domain, as one does not know the demand for a certain course till students make it clear in the preceding semester, and gauging the workload for a subject is going to be difficult, they added.