While the syllabi for the 2020-21 academic year has been cut for schools and pre-university colleges, universities and colleges have decided against trimming or tweaking their syllabi for the current academic year.
Instead, they are changing their teaching methods and asking students to adopt the “self-study” approach for many chapters. Managements of universities and colleges say they have been forced to do this as there is no clarity on when classes will be allowed to resume. Lecturers say that not only are they unable to complete portions while teaching online, but there has been a shift in the manner and style of teaching, one that both teachers and students are adapting to. Self-study is one such way of learning that is being adopted.
Students, too, say that lecturers are giving them more work to do on their own. A postgraduate student from Christ (Deemed-to-be University) said they have two hours of online classes followed by two hours of self-reading or assignments. “The teachers upload the assignment and give us a deadline. If we submit it in time, we get attendance,” she said.
T.D. Kemparaju, Vice-Chancellor, Bengaluru North University, said universities cannot cut their syllabus arbitrarily and need to do so on a scientific basis after a lot of deliberation. Any change in syllabus will need approval from the University Grants Commission (UGC). “The portion of one semester is related to that in the next, so we cannot just cut it. Instead, we want to encourage students to study some parts of the portion on their own. We want to provide study material that will help them,” he said.
Colleges and universities in the State were initially slated to open on October 1. However, with the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, the government decided to delay the resumption of classes. This is in keeping with the UGC, which had said that first-semester classes may commence from November 1. S. Japhet, Vice-Chancellor, Bengaluru Central University, said many lecturers are also asking students to make presentations so that the classes are not limited to the lecturers delivering monologues.
Many students, however, are not happy with the online classes and say that lecturers are adopting these methods as they are neither comfortable with taking online classes nor trained in the medium. “We tell our lecturers that they can use certain visual tools to make the classes more lively. However, they are not tech-savvy. To avoid taking classes, they tell us to complete assignments and ask us to study on our own,” said a second-year student of a city-based college affiliated to Bangalore University.
