HYDERABAD: The AICTE has released a list of books by Indian authors and publishers for undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma level engineering students. The list is in line with its ‘model curricular’ — a programme through which the Council will try to streamline technical education in colleges across the country. The Council believes focussing on Indian authors will help contextualize concepts for Indian students.
UGC, later, released a circular regarding the list. “It is hoped that this list will draw on Indian experience and contextualising in Indian setting may aid students in better learning of concepts and in turn improve their quality,” the circular read. Though the list is prepared by experts from top institutes like the IITs, many academicians feel that exclusive promotion of Indian authors may not be a wise decision. “These books on the list might help a below-average student understand concepts since the language is simple,” says R Chennakeshavu, a professor of JB Institute of Engineering and Technology.
“But, they oversimplify content. Also, these books are not of very high quality. The quality of private colleges will plummet further with the usage of such books.” “These books do cover the entire syllabus, but they do not give students that ‘edge’ or additional information that is essential in today’s competitive world,” says T Balakrishna Reddy, professor from the electronics department of Siddhartha Institute of Technology & Sciences.
AICTE has clarified that there is no compulsion to follow the list, and students too prefer certain books by foreign authors for their in-depth explanation of concepts. “Most Indian books are a compilation of writings by foreign authors... some are plain rip-offs,” says K Mohan, a Btech student from JUNTU-H. “But, these Indian books do help students who struggle with English; they are easy to understand.”
TISS protest: Boycott call gathers momentum, cripples administrative work
Students who have been protesting the closure of the hostel facility on the campus and the scrapping of the BA Social Science programme from the forthcoming academic year at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad have called for an indefinite strike resulting in an administrative failure at the Institute.
The protest that has been ongoing for the past two days, at the behest of the BA and some MA students, saw support from entire student population demanding a rollback of the decision to continue the residential facility and continue with the popular BA SS course. Prof S Siva Raju, deputy director, TISS Hyderabad said that he would convene a meeting with the students’ representatives on Thursday to address their concerns.
“We will take whatever steps we can for the best interest of the students,” he said and added that the course has only been “ temporarily deferred and not removed” as is been portrayed. “Since we do not have a permanent campus we want to defer the programme,” he said