Last week was quite
turbulent as many student and teacher group protested against CHOICE BASED
CREDIT SYSTEM (CBCS). This system is in news for all sort of reason since
University grants commission introduced this in front of central universities.
Delhi University teacher association (DUTA) and Federation of Central
University teachers association (FEDCUTA) held protest in front of Vigyan
Bhawan where the meeting of all the vice chancellors of central universities
was going on. Amidst this protest, CBCS got cleared and every central
university decided to embrace this system. They don’t seem to have any other
option as most of the university got funded by UGC. Protesting teacher
group saying this system will curb the university autonomy. For those, who
don’t know what this noise is all about, let’s explain what is CBCS?
What is CBCS?
CBCS or cafeteria
like system transforms the teacher oriented system to student centric system.
It helps students to learn at their own pace. It also enables students to pick
electives from a wide range of courses. It makes you undergo additional courses
and acquire more number of credits. Inter college/university transfer of
credits is also possible in this system. It means you complete a part of your
curriculum in one institute and get enrolled into another, to complete the rest
by transferring your credits.
One credit means one
teaching period per week for one semester (16 weeks) for theory courses and one
laboratory session of two periods / week for one semester. One teaching period
is of 60 minute duration.
Courses are divided
into 3 categories:
Core Courses are subjects
which are compulsory for every student
Elective courses are those
subjects which students can choose whether or not to have them in their
curriculum (Offered by the department)
Supportive courses are those which
a student should take, from other disciplines.
This means that if
you are a computer science student, you can still opt for history as an
elective. A study of varied subjects widens student’s horizon and exposure. Keeping
in mind that individual universities might not have the necessary faculty for
elective subjects; the government has created a framework for credit transfer
between institutes. Thus students can transfer credits from one university to
another as credits will be recognized by every university. To strengthen this
system, credit transfers can either be lateral or vertical, that is, at the
same or higher level, respectively.
Though it look really
good on paper but there are many problems associated with its implementation
which UGC seems to be overlooking, for instance, lack of infrastructure and low
student to teacher ratio.
The basic agenda of
CBCS is to make students more employable. Now those MNC’s who are coming to
India look for cheap labour. They don’t want someone who can question back.
Delhi university students are again becoming a subject of experimentation after
the previously tested concepts of the 4 year bachelor degree and semester
system.
We agree that Higher
education needs overhauling but too many experiments in a small span of time
might not be the right Idea. CBCS looks good on paper and a preferred system in
countries like the United States but India is different and that is why its
implementation here is far more difficult.
Food for Thought:
Even McDonald's had to put Aloo tikki burger in their menu to get success in
our country.
Please share your
comments with us and do let us know what your views are on the CBCS.
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