VIJAYAWADA: The students who have opted for market-oriented courses introduced at the UG level from the 2017-18 academic year are not a happy lot. The reason- the teachers at the government degree colleges don’t have much idea about the new courses. The State Higher education department had introduced 30 new degree courses from 2017-18 as part of reforms in the higher education sector. In fact, before introducing the courses, the Commissioner of Collegiate Education had constituted subject committees with 45 lecturers from 12 different subjects as members for designing new courses.
The Subject Committee members visited local industries, organisations, professionals and commercial outlets across the State and discussed market needs, job opportunities and related requirements before designing the new courses. After a thorough study, 35 new market-oriented courses were tentatively identified for BA, BSc and B Com programmes by the subject committees.
Of them, 30 subjects have been approved by the Higher Education Department and the syllabus of the market-oriented courses was framed. However, the teachers in the degree colleges don’t have enough experience in teaching the subjects, putting the students in a difficult situation. Officials say the main aim behind the introduction of market-oriented courses is to make the students “industry-ready.”