The much-awaited demand of the students of School of Open Learning (SOL) and Non-Collegiate Woman Education Board (NCWEB) for change of syllabus and adoption of semester system alike the regular college of Delhi University could soon be a reality as the university is set to implement Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and new syllabus for the open schools after almost 12 years.
The same scheme has been tabled for the approval of Executive Council (EC) meeting scheduled on Saturday.
Though the decision of the university will be one of the major decisions but it is getting controversial even before its implementation since some of the teachers and members of Academic Council (AC) have started putting up questions such as 'How DU is going to implement the programme and semester system in such a short time?, what are the plans to conduct examination?, How it will distribute study material to about 1.5 lakh students? And so on."
Till now the students enrolled in DU via 'correspondence mode' are studying the oldest version of syllabus pattern since 2008 and face problems in getting admissions in master programme as the results for these schools come late, jobs in private and teaching field due to old pattern of syllabus and no migrations options to the regular colleges.
"This is a very welcoming step and will give an equal opportunity and rights to the students to study the upgraded syllabus but the questions is- Is the varsity have a solid plan to implement the scheme from this year? The strength of SOL is more than a lakh and has a very minimal amount of teachers to teach the students. The last date of admissions in SOL is 31st August and DU has started the admission process with old and annual patterned prospectus. Thus, problem is how it will conduct examinations, how it will take classes for semester based syllabus with less teachers, how it will distribute lakhs of upgraded materials in a short time," said Rajesh Jha, a member of EC, DU.
"The university will distribute online material but half of the students enrolled in SOL are coming from economically weaker sections and many do not have computers at home," Jha added.
While another member of EC as well as officiating Director of NCWEB, Geeta Bhatt said, "Obviously the university is implementing the scheme with proper and articulated planning. Further, admissions are still going in the SOL, NCWEB and even in some regular colleges,"
"The university examination branch is also working on the examination calendar to explore the possibilities to conduct examinations for students of SOL and NCWEB. Further, the CBCS pattern is already been taught to the regular students, thus it will be upgraded for the open schools students also," she added.
Bhatt further added that all the points will be presented before the EC with the agenda and the varsity is focused to implement the CBCS pattern.
"This is a very welcome step but the way DU is planning to implement the scheme in a hurry will harm the students. This will also face legal issues as the varsity has invited applications and conducting admissions as per the previous methid i.e, annual pattern," said Pankaj Garg former member of AC.
The SOL has enrollment of about 1.5 lakh students-60 percent of DU strength and NCWEB have more than 2000 students enrolled in it.