BENGALURU: Kannada has been made compulsory as one of the two languages to be taught in the first two years of undergraduation under the National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020), while the Higher Education Department said functional Kannada will be taught to students who do not know Kannada. This will include students of foreign nationalities as well.
Kannada will be one of the two languages that students will learn for the first four semesters of the course, said Pradeep P, commissioner of Higher Education. Functional Kannada will include basic communication skills for students to interact in the language, besides basic understanding of the alphabets, he said.
The model is being replicated from the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), where non-Kannadiga students from first-year engineering — or students who do not know Kannada at all — are given training in functional Kannada, he said.
While students remained confused about the admission process, Pradeep said that the admission module under the Unified University and College Management System (UUCMS) model has been launched this year and the process has been taken offline to allow students to be guided by respective colleges on choosing two core subjects and one open elective.
Multilingualism to be promoted under policy
Ethics and human and Constitutional values will be mandatory. Health and wellness life skills will be imparted, which help in today’s time that has the incidence of drug and social media addiction. Multilingualism will be promoted under the curriculum, which will also take into account local context and diversity.
There will be a synergy in the curriculum right from anganwadi to primary, to secondary, and to degree level classes, he added. The curriculum of first-year degree students will be aligned with level 5 of the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF), wherein students will be equipped with all the skills at that level.
Draft legislation process is on
Commissioner of Higher Education Pradeep P said draft legislation is in progress for implementation of four verticals, which also include legislation and grants. However, central legislation is also awaited, based on which the state legislation will be structured. Pradeep said universities can make academic changes through regulations.
All classrooms to go ‘smart’ by yr-end
In a bid to bridge the digital divide, the state’s Higher Education Department is looking at establishing 100 per cent smart classrooms by this year-end. Already, 2,500 out of 9,000 classrooms have been made high-tech. Commissioner of Higher Education Pradeep P said the department is talking to the government for funding. Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan said students are being provided with gadgets and institutes have been asked to have internet facilities