Dimapur, 10 November (MTNews): The All-Nagaland Government College Teachers Association (ANGCTA) has submitted a representation to the Vice Chancellor of Nagaland University seeking clarification on certain matters pertaining to the implementation of the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP) curriculum framework.
The ANGCTA, representing educators from government colleges across Nagaland, has highlighted several key issues that they believe need urgent consideration. Some of the key concerns raised by the ANGCTA included clarity on evaluation basis for Skill Enhancement Courses (SECs), and the need for more clarity on the common pool for interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary and common value added courses. It also raised concerns about the timing of completing the vocational course during the “summer vacation” and the need for a specific time frame.
ANGCTA also urged the university to specify the minimum faculty requirements for each course to prevent a shortage of teaching staff. It also requested for the university to suggest teacher-pupil ratios for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs).
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It also raised concerns about syllabus content not aligning with the reduced credit structure in the new curriculum. ANGCTA further suggested a review of the SEC syllabus to ensure a balance between theoretical and experiential aspects.
(Full text: Representation on FYUGP Curriculum framework)
To
The Vice Chancellor
Nagaland University
HQ: Lumami
The All-Nagaland Government College Teachers Association (ANGCTA), a collective of educators from Government colleges across Nagaland, humbly submit this representation to seek your kind attention on matters pertaining to the curriculum framework on implementation of FYUGP as follows.
1. Assessment and evaluation pattern: Clarity is sought on matters such as:
a. What is the basis for the evaluation of SEC courses?
b. With regards to the awarding of UG certificate and UG diploma for students desiring to exit after completion of one and two years respectively, the curriculum and credit framework guidelines, 2023 mentions that one vocational course of 4 credits must be completed during the “summer vacation”. Since different colleges in different districts of the state observes summer vocation at different times of the year, simply saying summer vocation is creating confusion among the different colleges, therefore, it will be better if the university sets a certain time frame (e.g., within six months) for the completion of the vocational course after the completion of one year (UG certificate) or two years (UG diploma).
2. Common pool for interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary and common value added courses: The common pool for interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary and common value added courses needs more clarity. University need to specifically mention which courses shall be offered in which semester instead of “students can opt for CP papers in all semesters”. Giving option in this manner is creating confusion amongst the institutions as to which subjects they should offer in which semester. Also, work distribution is not uniformly maintained amongst the departments.
3. Minimum number of teacher requirements: Since the course structure has changed, university must bring out the minimum number of faculty requirement for each course so that no department shall face acute shortage of teaching faculty and that the students shall not be deprived in their teaching-learning process due to shortages of faculty in the department. Therefore, we request the university to suggest minimum number of teacher for each department/discipline and also to suggest teacher-pupil ratio for HEIs so that the objective of NEP 2020 which is to be a learner-centric can be taken care of effectively. Also, if university suggests the minimum number of teacher requirements for each course, it will be helpful for respective governing body of HEIs to provide/recruit necessary requirements to facilitate the new curriculum framework.
4. Course allocation and modalities unmatched: In the absence of the suggestions from the university as stated above in Pt. No. 3, the teacher-pupil ratio become too impractical as some department has even more than 1:500. For instance, the department like EVS is to cover all three batches in the current academic session. This department takes first semester under interdisciplinary course (3 credits) which is (more or less) compulsory for all the students enrolled including arts, commerce and science, and EVS has SEC in third semester (3 credits) and again EVS is a compulsory paper for all students in the fifth semester (current 5th Semester). However, in most of the colleges, there is only one (1) teacher manning EVS department. Hence, it is not only difficult but humanly impossible on the part of the department to do justice to the students. Further, the courses on EVS are given in first and third semesters (both in odd semester).
However, the course to be offered in even semesters by department of EVS is missing. Hence, in odd semester, the department is overloaded while in the even semester, there is no course to be offered. Therefore, redistribution of course allocation needs to be done in this respect in order to justify the work distribution across the academic session (i.e. spreading across both odd and even semesters).
5. Syllabus content: The credit framework has changed in the new curriculum; however, the content of the syllabus has not changed as seen in most of the subjects. For instance, in the CBCS, the credits for Core course and generic elective papers carry 6 credits each, meaning there are 6 contact hours in a week in these courses Now, in the FYUGP the credit has been reduced to 4 credits in Major and Minor papers which means there will be only 4 contact hours in a week. However, for most of the subjects, the syllabus framed by the university continued to follow 5 units pattern without reducing the syllabus content. This indicates that the same course which was taught in 6 contact hours (24 contact hours in a month – in 4 weeks a month pattern) are now squeezed into 4 contact hours (16 contact hours in a month). Further, in the 1st semester, AECC (English) a compulsory paper of 2 (two) credits is allotted less class per week compared to English Core Paper with 4(four) credits but the course content is almost the same in both the papers. Therefore the course content in AECC (English Compulsory) needs to be reduced.
This ultimately put more academic stress in teaching- learning process in the new curriculum. Hence, this is in contradiction with the basic objective of the NEP 2020 policy where the curriculum is to be student’s friendly and learners centric. Therefore, it is felt that the syllabus content should be reduced in order to fit into 4 contact hours curriculum, say 4 units. Similarly, the course for SEC, ability enhancement, interdisciplinary and common value added courses have lesser credit value: hence the content of the syllabus for these courses also need to be minimized in order to fit into 3, 2, 3 and 3 contact hours respectively.
6. Distribution of papers for common pool courses need a relook: Various courses are suggested in the common pool courses, However, allocation of courses to some departments such as Basic Computer Application for Tenyidie department, Computer application for Hindi, Public administration for commerce may be revised according to the relevance of the discipline and rectify wherever necessary. Also, it is given in the curriculum and credit framework guidelines, 2023, that the course “Work Ethics” is to be given by the College. However, clarity is not given on how the college shall formulate or introduce the course on work ethics: hence university is requested to bring out modalities in this regard. Furthermore, the course “Intellectual Property Rights” are given for department of Management under Value added course and the same is given for department of Chemistry under interdisciplinary course. Hence, clarity is sought to avoid overlapping, repetition and confusion.
7. Skill Enhancement Courses (SECs): As the new education policy clearly stated the lack of required skill in the existing system. Accordingly, skill courses are given more importance and hence reduced the theoretical aspects in reducing the credits in major and minor papers. Introducing skill enhancement course is to enhance the skill of the students for excellence in any job as stated in the preamble of the curriculum. However, the syllabus proposed for SEC courses are mostly of theoretical and less experiential. For example, in the department of History, SEC-403: Introduction to Archaeology could be best opted as a Major Paper rather than a Skill Enhancement Course (SEC). Hence, the university may look into the matter.
Furthermore, it is suggested that all the departments in the college offer at least one SEC paper during the course of the programme because, in the bigger colleges, it has been noticed that the departments that offer SEC papers are overwhelmed with excessive enrollments which ultimately hamper the teaching learning experience.
Therefore, as stated above, the undersigned on behalf of ANGCTA request your esteemed office to look into the matter for the interest of the University and higher education at large.
Thanking you, Sir.
(A. MOAMONGLA AIER)
President, ANGCTA
(DR. YELHI VERO)
General Secretary, ANGCTA