There are a lot of discussions
going on now with regard to the appropriateness of using semester system in our
colleges. Recently the Committee instituted under the chairpersonship of
Prof.Hridaya Kumari has suggested modifying the exam pattern because of the
delay that is taking place in publishing the results and also because of the
great burden that is put on the universities through frequent exams. One of the
suggestions put out by the committee was by reducing the exams.
Semester system has become almost
a universal pattern because of it being used in the US as well as in Western
countries. Using the system in our country helps our students to fall in line
with a well established global system. One of the most important facts
associated with semester system is that the examination is conducted by the
teacher himself. The students are graded by their teacher. Examinations are not
supervised or graded by an outside agency. It is the teacher himself who sets
the questions and who grades the papers.
Semester exam will be successful
only when the teacher grads the papers. The Colleges should be given the
authority to conduct exams and grade them. The teachers have to be trusted. Of
course, we will have the outcry that some teachers would inflate the grades or
that some colleges that do not have proper academic standards will give higher
grades to its students than what they deserve. It is here that the Universities
have to intervene and take action.
It will be a great disaster if
the Universities are going to conduct the semester exams. There will be only
exams and nothing will be happening in the sector of teaching. Teachers will
always be called out as invigilators or as examiners and hence there will be
less and less hours of teaching.
The teacher has to be respected
and his judgment has to be accepted. Semester system works where the colleges
are given autonomy. It would be a mockery of educational system if only one or
two govt colleges are allowed to be autonomous. Autonomy should be granted to
all the colleges who have been found worthy by UGC standards. Then, slowly it
should be extended to other colleges.
In order to have common standard
and to avoid inflation of grades, the University can conduct a final exam which
could be equivalent to a comprehensive exam that is offered at American
universities at the end of the course. Of course, in the US, that comprehensive
too is offered by the college/University where the student is studying. By
holding an exam at the end of the degree course and declaring them eligible for
a degree after passing the exam, the University can avoid the so called outcry
of inflation of grades injected into the system by untrustworthy teachers or
colleges.
For the Master’s program the
students are given the option of taking the comprehensive or writing a
dissertation. If one fails in a particular course, one can repeat the course
or move to another college and continue his studies there.
There are two semesters:Fall(Aug-Dec.)
and Spring (Jan-May). Each semester will have 15-16 weeks of classes and the a
student is expected to take at least 4 courses per semester, getting 12 credit
hours. There is a short summer session (May –July) where if the students want o
finish more courses, they can take additional courses during the Summer.Usually
for an undergraduate course, one needs 120-130 credit hours and for Masters,
30-64 credit hours. Four years are required for a Bachelor degree and two years
are for a Master’s.
GPA, grade point Average is
A(4),B(3),C(2)and D(1).F is failure .One has to have a cumulative GPA of 2 to
have a good academic standing.
But more attention is to be paid
to a new phenomenon that was introduced by Gandhiji University and a few others
in Kerala which is the One Window -admission. The admission is being done by
the University and the list is sent to the colleges.
It is a wrong- headed and politically motivated
move, trying to annihilate the distinctive culture and autonomy of colleges.
Each college has its separate culture and academic standards and it is the
college that should hold admissions to its courses.
Affiliation does not give the University the right
to admissions. It is doubly wrong on the part of the University to insist that
the Minority institutions should follow the so-called One Window system of
admissions. The Supreme Court and the
High Courts have several times struck down any infringement of the Minority
rights that pertains to admission and appointment. Speaking of affiliation, Justice
Khanna observes in the famous case of St.Xavier's vs the State of Gujarat: "
Recognition or Affiliation is a facility which the University grants to an
educational institution for the purpose of enabling the students to sit for an
exam to be conducted by the University and therefore ,it stands to reason to
hold that no regulation which is unrelated to the purpose can be imposed.”
He further adds that “Compelling
the college to become a constituent part of the University amounts to taking
away of its separate identity by the force of law.”The court explains that the
right to administer includes the right to admit students of their choice. Hence
Justice Khanna very categorically affirms : “ to insist upon affiliation on
terms and conditions which restrict the right of administration is annihilative
of Article 30(1).
In the history of many colleges,
the University came into being very late. There are some colleges that predate
the former Travancore University. At one stroke, some educational hotheads have
destroyed the autonomy of colleges by introducing the one window system. It
involves the delay of beginning classes, enormous financial expenditure and
moving students from their locality to distant places
The one window system is highly
detrimental to the lives of the students as well as to the autonomy of
colleges. It should be done away with.
Principals have observed that
poor students who cannot stay in hostels in distant colleges where they have
got admission through the One-Window Admission process have
discontinued their studies.
Some who had some political
vengeance against private colleges wanted to do away the independence and the
very feeble amount of autonomy enjoyed by the colleges. When demand for autonomy
for colleges is gaining great momentum it is strange that the Universities here
have taken the retrograde step of diminishing that autonomy. Who can say that
the University is fair while the colleges are unfair in preparing the admission
list?
If the University is preparing
the admission list of the private colleges, what are the colleges for? Are they
there only to offer physical facilities—class rooms, light and water? Even in
Chinese Universities, controlled by a dictatorship, each University does its own
admission for its students.Hence,it stands to common sense to realize that the One Window
admission process violates the autonomy, the culture and the identity of the
colleges.
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