BENGALURU: The government’s decision to implement National Education Policy (NEP) from the upcoming academic year has created confusion among autonomous colleges, who usually follow a different calender. In fact, the government is yet to ready a syllabus and structures for the degree programmes.
Mount Carmel College (MCC), one of the top arts and science colleges in the city, which started classes from August 9 for its first-year students has pressed the pause button. “Through this notification, we wish to inform all our first-year undergraduate students admitted this academic year that we are in the process of redesigning the curriculum and, therefore, need to reschedule our academic calendar in alignment with the university and UGC calendar. The degree classes which commenced on 9th August 2021 will be rescheduled to resume at a later date, which will be notified through this portal at the earliest,” said a circular from the college principal.
Jyoti Nivas College (JNC), yet another top autonomous college in Bengaluru, that had plans to start orientation and life skill training programmes from August 21, said it will now finalise the dates after a meeting on Monday. “There are many factors that have to be taken care of before we implement NEP from the upcoming year. Teachers have to be trained and students oriented for the new structure. We will finalise the dates after the Monday meeting,” said principal Sr Lalitha Thomas.
St Joseph’s College (Autonomous) said it will go ahead with the reopening on Monday. “We will start classes for first-year students and tweak the programmes as necessary when the government announces its plans. As of now, the complete roadmap is not ready and we are waiting for the same from the state government,” said principal Fr Victor Lobo.
Karnataka is the first state in the country to roll out NEP. All state public universities and affiliated colleges are expected to follow NEP norms. The three-year degree programme is undergoing a change in structure. According to the NEP, which comes into effect from the 2021-22 academic year, students aspiring for a degree should opt for two subjects as discipline core. At the start of third year, they can opt for one subject as major and another as minor, or both as major subjects.
In addition to this, they need to choose Kannada and one more language as language subjects. Students need to choose open and discipline electives as per the curriculum structure. They can get a maximum of 40% of the expected credits through official online courses and will have the option of multiple exits.
The government has announced 33 committees for each subject. They have to submit the subject structures by September 6. After this, each university will have their board of studies forming the syllabus, before classes begin on October 1.
“These committees will prepare model curriculum in their respective subjects. The same will be passed on to all universities as guidance. It is up to them to adopt with appropriate modifications as they deem fit. There’s no compulsion to adopt the same,” said B Thimme Gowda, vice-chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council.
“The committees can concentrate on first-year curriculum during the first month. They will be given several months to prepare the curriculum for the remaining 2 years and for the masters degree,” he added.
“It will be very difficult to come up with the structure in the next 20 days. There are a lot of things to be done before actual implementation on ground,” said a member of one of the committees.
