An uneducated guess

Delhi University’s ambitious four-year undergrad programme fails to impress a large section of students and teachers alike, who brand it as substandard and a joke

“June is not the month for protests at Delhi University,” says Sunny Kumar, the Delhi president of the All India Students Association (AISA). With the admission season in full swing — over three lakh applications have been submitted so far, and all colleges on term break, Kumar is right. Yet, since June 4, hordes of students and unions have been staging protests and hunger strikes demanding the rollback of the controversial Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP).

Shruti Balaji, a first-year student of Political Science at Lady Shriram College (LSR), claims the quality of education has suffered greatly. The syllabus of the foundation courses is a chief cause for criticism. “You know, four years is great, we’d like to know more about subjects outside our discipline,” she says, “But the level was very poor, and teachers had a minimal role to play. We were learning about balanced diets in Science and prime numbers in Mathematics.” The foundation course for Information Technology covered the basics of computers — what is software, what is hardware, how to use a printer and so on. “We were even given laptops, but we never got to use them. We were in classes for so long we didn’t need them,” says Anusha Sundar, a first-year student of History at LSR.

Since its introduction last year, the FYUP has been the subject of nearly every protest at the university. It has united Left- and Right-wing outfits; drawn in reluctant organisations like the NSUI; and made it to the manifestos of parties. The foundation courses have been branded ‘substandard’ and a ‘joke’. In a recent survey, 91 per cent of the 11,000-odd students voted against FYUP. On June 9, AISA and the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) forwarded an alternative to the HRD ministry.

Diluted learning

When it was originally conceived during UPA-II, the FYUP was seen as an ambitious attempt to revamp India’s higher education, and was modelled on the American university system. Through the foundation courses, it intended to infuse an inter-disciplinary approach and improve students’ employability. All the undergraduate disciplines have become four-year courses, with an option to ‘drop out’ from the second year on. BSc degrees have become BTech. Students will now take twice as many papers — nearly 50 — of which only 20 pertain to their chosen discipline. While retaining their rigour and quality, the discipline courses have also seen the syllabi diluted to accommodate other courses. One year on, life for the first batch of FYUP ‘guinea pigs’ has been one of anxiety, time misspent, and of little value.

The foundation courses have thrown up several dilemmas. Sample this: “As part of our History Honours course, we’re taught to question and consider multiple interpretations. We looked at Indian history from a Marxist, Nationalist and other points of view,” says Chandraneev Das, first-year, St Stephen’s College. “In the second semester, the Indian History foundation course was a nationalist version only.” In its second year, the ‘experimental batch’ will get to choose a minor discipline course. Already attracting dispute, the DC-II option under FYUP holds great promise, but only on paper. “There was an option for African studies, a field I’m interested in,” says Sundar. But at LSR, there is no faculty to teach it.

At DU, what makes life interesting is its healthy balance of academic rigour and extra-curricular activities. But with the current classroom schedules, students struggle to fit in the cultural calendar or interact with seniors. “We’re in classes from 8.45am to 5pm,” says Balaji. On an average day, they must make four presentations for foundation courses. “Though the course material is simple, consider the sheer amount of time spent in class,” she says. With school-level material and timetables, it’s unsurprising that attendance has plummeted. “In my Analysis course, I’ve always had 95 per cent attendance,” says Nandita Narain, who teaches Mathematics at St Stephen’s and is the DUTA president. “But last year, in a class of 45, there were never more than 30 students.” She further points out that the administration no longer allots five per cent marks for attendance like it used to.

Failing the test

Infrastructure, or the lack of it, is another cause for criticism. The administration hadn’t planned for enough classrooms or teachers for the new courses. “Often we had to wait for a classroom to be free,” says Balaji. “We even had lessons in bamboo huts.” During the combined classes for various disciplines, arts students struggled to keep pace with math and science courses and vice versa. “According to UGC, the teacher-student ratio must be 1:30,” says Kumar. “But for foundation courses, colleges packed 90 students in one auditorium.”

There’s little doubt that at the heart of the controversy is the administration’s mismanagement. From badly designed foundation courses (“for which we teachers weren’t consulted,” says Narain) and appointment of hundreds of ad-hoc teachers to ‘dropout’ degrees and banning criticism of the programme, many students and teachers say the FYUP is an ill-conceived plan.

“Any form of dissent has been banned,” says Sucheta De, president, AISA. “Even street plays by students on FYUP weren’t allowed.” Students say review committees have visited their classes for feedback. “Yet no action has been taken, and none of their reports are in the public domain,” says Kumar.

But not everyone is in favour of scrapping FYUP. “It’s either implement it or roll it back completely. There’s no middle ground,” says Sundar. Students, like her, want to give FYUP a chance, if changes are made to the syllabus. BSc students, who will now be awarded a BTech, say the technical degree will add more value. But without a new syllabus or AICTE recognition, it is useless, counters Kumar.

While the rollback debate rages, with the ball now in HRD minister Smriti Irani’s court, first-year students are worried their learning will be inferior and their juniors will graduate at the same time as them. “What will happen to placements?” asks Sundar, “We’re quite the joke of the college, the guinea pigs of FYUP.”