SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Aug 3: Ranchi University is set to implement the National Education Policy 2020 from the new session. However, students are still mostly unaware or have false information related to NEP 2020, which is creating confusion among students and parents alike.
Keeping this in mind, Ranchi University’s Dean of Student Welfare Raj Kumar Sharma, explained in detail some of the changes that can be expected by the students in the upcoming new session.
- “Subject mapping and diversification of all subjects has been done already. The syllabus is being prepared at the moment. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the syllabus for all subjects in universities will be the same, to make the transfer easier for students,” he said.
- However, when questioned if students will be able to change their subjects, he said, “Subjects have been divided into three categories. One is Major subjects that will be the honours subjects of a student. Along with this, they will have introductory and common subjects as well.”
- “Common subjects will be the same for students of all streams alike. These include ‘Understanding India’, which is a new subject. Along with this, there’s Health/Yoga and ‘Maths, Computational thinking and Analysis’,” DSW Sharma added.
- “The UG programmes aiming to imbibe students with typical expertise about their programme will have to accommodate a few new subjects to make them multidisciplinary. NEP categorically advocates a 4-year multidisciplinary Bachelor’s programme, since it allows the opportunity to experience the full range of holistic and multidisciplinary education in addition to a focus on the chosen major and minors as per the choices of the student,” Sharma explained.
- The establishment of the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) offering centralised storage of academic performance of all students is a welcome move as the student performance will be centrally available for consideration of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
- “Under this, as per the framework, 40 credits will be needed for a certificate, 80 to get a diploma, 120 for a bachelor’s degree and 160 credits for a degree with honours/research. As per the draft, one credit is equivalent to one hour of teaching or two hours of practical session or fieldwork,” Sharma explained.
- Notably, every programme has certain essential subjects for its major specialization and embedding it with a few more subjects for value addition of respective degree with minor in other domains may open up new opportunities but the purpose of seeking education is not only to fetch livelihood. Also, the efforts to have a few multidisciplinary subjects as part of the curriculum framework by sacrificing the core subjects may degrade quality in the major specialization.
- Theoretically, the idea of multiple entry and exit appears attractive but the admissions in UG degree have to be carried out on the premise that HEIs and students both aim at the completion of the degree of all admitted students in the stipulated duration of the programme. The ones who are unable to complete the programme may leave in between with a certificate/diploma as per their respective exit policy.
- Lateral admission to such students who already completed but failed to secure admission in higher ranked HEIs, may not augur well with the higher merit students of high ranked HEIs who got admitted after stiff competition in the first year.
- For example, any student completing a set of subjects from an institution may drop out from it and aspire for admission to better rank HEIs in subsequent stages i.e. after Ist year or 2nd year, or 3rd year in a 4-year degree programme. In the case of lateral admissions failing in keeping pace with their peers in the classroom may eventually burden the HEIs with failing students and affect overall performance.
- Furthermore, when questioned if the university will work to clear misinformation regarding the same, he said that the university plans to organise seminars for all HODs of the department along with setting up enquiry spaces in the university and colleges affiliated with the university.
