Varsities busy preparing new syllabi as per SEP

BENGALURU: With classes for first-year undergraduate students set to begin next month, universities across the city are preparing syllabi under the new State Education Policy (SEP). The syllabi might not have too many changes, but will be updated with recent developments in the subject and will adhere to the framework mandated by SEP.
“Our Board of Studies (BoS) is on the job.The syllabus will be completed in 15 days. This will be followed by approval by the academic council and the syndicate, and will be readied by the time the first-year students walk into campus,” said Jayakar Shetty, vice-chancellor, Bangalore University.
“The guidelines from the govt are straightforward. The curriculum will be almost like the previous ones except for the update,” he added.
Bengaluru City University has 15 BoSes submitting their syllabi. There are a total of 38 boards. “Reviewing syllabus is a routine affair, usually done once in three years. Now, there is a new framework. As per the new framework, there has to be readjustment in terms of structure. The major changes are in having three majors and the change in assessment pattern. Credits will be accordingly changed. Since this is based on an interim order, we have to wait for the final report for the regulations to be framed,” said Lingaraju Gandhi, vice-chancellor of BCU.
Autonomous colleges have prepared their set of curriculum as well. Mount Carmel College has already begun classes for the first-years. Kristu Jayanti College, which is set to reopen for first-years on August 1, said it has also readied the curriculum.
After the National Education Policy was adopted by the erstwhile BJP govt, the Congress govt rolled it back and introduced an SEP. An intermediate report on SEP had been submitted which gave the curricular framework for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The fourth year proposed by NEP was also cancelled.
The curriculum has to be approved by the academic council and the syndicate once submitted by BoS. “It is sad we have gone back at least six years with SEP in place. The assessment is at 80:20, with no continuous evaluation. Education should be spared of politics. These constant changes won’t be good for students,” said a college principal.