PANJIM: Against the backdrop of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) for the undergraduate level being deferred by another academic year, structural changes – imperative to shift from the conventional teaching style – are likely to be reworked in a bid to come closer to the University Grant Commission’s (UGC) prescribed system.
Goa University (GU), which had begun the ground work required to implement CBSC at the affiliated degree colleges, has conceded the existing strength of teaching faculty would drop if the number of credits is reduced as prescribed by UGC.
Knowing that implementation of CBCS will result in loss of jobs for teachers, the university has decided to soft paddle on its implementation deciding to execute it in a phased manner.
GU Registrar Y V Reddy said that as per the present system, students across the three streams – Science, Arts and Commerce – are studying equivalent to 164 credits but this would be reduced to 128 to 132 credits once CBCS is in force. This will reduce academic burden on a student.
“One of the proposals as per UGC guidelines is structural changes. Our major challenge is to bring down the number of teaching staff. Once CBCS is implemented, teachers on lecture-basis followed by contractual and some regular ones, who are on the surplus list, will face the axe. But we did not want unrest among the teachers and therefore recommended to move from semester to CBCS,” he told Herald. This will enable proceeding with the system phase-wise without disturbing the entire structure.
Fear of losing jobs besides difficulty in getting accustomed to revised syllabus in a short duration were two reasons cited by several college teachers to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
GU also suggested that colleges freeze further appointments for the next three to four years, and not to fill the vacuum. “The freezing of recruitment will lessen chances to relieve the surplus staff of the job. Many among the existing ones would thus not fall in the surplus category,” Reddy added explaining the strategy.
The postponement comes at a time when GU’s Academic Council had finalized the revised syllabus for the undergraduate course under the system, and submitted it to the government for a final nod. A reply is awaited though, following which it would be forwarded to the Chancellor for a final go-ahead.
