Mid-semester syllabus change troubles diploma students in Coimbatore
COIMBATORE: Teachers and students alleged that the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) implemented a new syllabus of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR - VR) in three diploma courses in the middle of the semester at government polytechnic colleges without following norms.
A lecturer from a government polytechnic college in Chennai told TNIE, "As per the norm, DOTE should change the syllabus every three years and it should form a committee to frame the new syllabus, after which it should ask for feedback from educationists and experts before implementing it.
But DOTE implemented the new syllabus of AR-VR for third-year students of Mechanical, Computer Science and Electronics and Communication in the middle of the semester. AR-VR syllabus was implemented in the mechanical diploma by removing the old syllabus of Computer Numerical Control (CNC), which was taught to the students for one and half months in the semester. This is a complete violation," he alleged.
A third-year student, D Ranjith (name changed) from a government polytechnic college in Perundurai in Erode district said, "Old syllabus was taught to us for the first one and half months, following which lecturers from Chennai taught this new syllabus through online mode for two months. Our lecturers did not even teach us the new syllabus and it has become difficult to understand the concept of the syllabus before our AR-VR exam on December 6."
When contacted, the principal of a government polytechnic college told TNIE, "This syllabus was implemented at government colleges only as the new syllabus comes under the Naan Mudhalvan scheme. Despite this, we have urged that officers of DOTE should bring the old syllabus again as it covers necessary topics."
She said that officers from DOTE assured her that the old syllabus will be included in the next academic year. Repeated attempts to reach the commissioner of the DOTE G Laxmi Priya went in vain.