The Four Year Education Programme (FYUP) of Delhi University may do no better in building clarity of purpose and objectives for students getting enrolled and affiliated to one of the finest centres of excellence in the country.
FYUP for all its counters and claims is to be tried and tested as for its passage which was brought to a standstill seven years ago, witnessing protests and resistance by faculties and students alike during the Vice chancellorship of Dinesh Singh. Later, in 2014, with a BJP led NDA government at the centre, FYUP was totally done away with, protecting, preserving and safeguarding the values and views of the academic and research fraternity.
If I were to convince myself of their aims and methods now, then I would surely have had second thoughts as for their distinguishing duplicity in brazenly attempting to interpret and introduce FYUP with an all-new skin — multiple points of access and exits, emphasis on vocational training and coaching, employability, etc.
It’s good that students and scholars will get alternatives and options for choosing their choice courses and subjects as per their inclination and orientation, but for the colleges becoming autonomous, exorbitant fees might set the alarm bells ringing for those dependent on stipends, scholarships and fellowships.
Apart from syllabus being daily revised in consultation with bureaucrats and technocrats taking potshots with what learns and relearns. The decision to drop Mahadevi Verma and Draupadi along with a whole host of key figures from language and literature smack of the intention of the academic and administrative apparatus of the University in fixing the shortcomings and loopholes of the system in adapting and accomodating to the technicalities of being a management school than say an academic centre facilitating critical quest for knowing, understanding and questioning the status quo’s ideas and intent depriving us of our humbleness and humility.
Cracking up on dialogue and dissent being creatively declared and drafted for ridiculing and muzzling expressions of views and opinions. Aren’t we familiar with what goes on with the pace of rapid privatisation with every one of us being transformed into noble slaves than a soul?
A wake-up call for Delhi University Teacher’s Association to take this matter up in the best of their competitive spirits, any lethargy will prove to be disastrous and detrimental.