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The
proposed plan of UGC looks too ambitious, a
childish brain without considering the practical
implications of the proposal. I don't think that
merely standardization and uniformity of
syllabus across universities in India will
improve the standard and quality of learning and
teaching. We can design an excellent syllabus or
even we can copy and paste the syllabus of top
universities of the world, does it mean that the
quality of education will improve? Quality of
education germinates from quality of teachers
and their updated skills and knowledge, quality
research and publications. In the age of
globalization, there is no denying the fact that
English is the only international language for
success and prosperity. Without standardization
of language of instructions, standardization of
syllabus has no meaning .
Take an example of North Indian universities
e.g. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana
etc where medium of instruction is Hindi. It is
estimated that about 35 million students study
in Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses with
Hindi medium. The standard of education of the
millions of students who study in an Indian
language depends on the quality of teaching and
study material available to them. There are
hardly any quality text books available for the
teachers and students. Even within a state,
there are disparities in the teaching faculty,
infra structure and environment for teaching and
learning For Example, there are vast differences
in the teaching and learning environment among
colleges of University of Delhi there are over
80 colleges. Furthermore, there are over 18,000
colleges all over India. It is any body’s
imagination whether UGC can really implement a
uniform structure of syllabus.
It is no exaggeration to argue that the quality
of college and University-level textbooks,
particularly in Hindi, are dismally low and of
poor quality. Many question their authenticity.
Furthermore, many argue that such a sorry state
of affairs may ruin the future of students. It
is also argued by many that a language to be an
effective and meaningful medium of instruction,
should have a framework based on an exhaustive
standard technical terminologies and should be
used uniformly.
Teachers hardly refer to academic or
professional journals in updating their teaching
skills and knowledge. Teachers hardly teach
materials from the original text books or may be
unable to understand and interpret properly the
concepts from such original textbooks. The
quality of books written by many Indian authors
are known to us. On the other hand, many
universities in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have English as
the medium of instruction. Teachers working in
such universities may be in a better position to
teach uniform syllabus because text books in
English language are available. The quality of
research also differs among such universities.
Professor Raja Mutthirulandi (http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0106.htm)
also raises certain questions and concerns on
this proposed uniform system of syllabus . For
example, he argues “can the proposal of uniform
syllabus provide any embedded guarantee for what
actually will be taught, in what order, in what
manner, and from what perspective in all
universities? Does the proposal for uniform
syllabus offer any assurance for uniform quality
of teaching everywhere.? “ Furthermore, it is
also argued by many that since the landscape of
universities” education in India is very broad
and heterogeneous and also their potentials and
resources significantly vary, the proposed
system may not be able to achieve uniform
attainment of skills and capabilities among
learners.
Therefore, UGC, first has to think about the
medium of instruction. This may not be an easy
task for it to implement such a system in Social
Sciences areas. In case of Engineering and
Science, it may be possible. However, 75% of
total intakes in all universities study social
sciences courses.
What has transpired UGC to introduce uniform
syllabus ? If standardizing the syllabus can
make universities of world class, then many
universities, in Asia and Middle East and
Africa, which have their education system based
on American universities pattern, would have
achieved the status of world class universities?
Unless UGC gives high impetus on improving the
teaching quality and research publications, all
other efforts introduced will be just a drop in
the ocean. UGC must introduce very rigorously
the teaching evaluation system and improve the
quality of conducting examination. Otherwise, it
will be simply building castles in the air.
By introducing a uniform syllabus, is the UGC
going to prescribe standard and quality text
books and getting them translated e.g. in Hindi
for universities having Hindi as the medium of
instruction?
UGC should encourage and fund for writing high
quality textbooks and such books should be
subjected to international referring. Only after
then books written by Indian authors should be
allowed as text books at the undergraduate and
post graduate level.
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