Further blow to Delhi University semester switch

Two days after the semester system was shot down by teachers, a meeting of the committee of courses (syllabus making committee) of the English department, too, resolved that it is “ unviable to introduce the semester system in undergraduate BA English (Hons) courses” this year.

English has now become the third department — apart from Sociology and History — to deal a blow to Delhi University’s plan to switch over to semester system this year. Last year, DU had introduced semester system in 13 undergraduate science programmes.

However, at the same time, the department has ratified the revision of all concurrent (read compulsory) papers of English offered by all other undergraduate programmes of Delhi University as per semester mode.

In the resolution, which had 11 out of 15 votes in favour, the committee has cited lack of “ public discussion on the pedagogical and academic implications of semesterisation” as the reason for rejecting the implementation of semester system at the honours level this year.

“ The teachers have raised several academic arguments against why the English course is not suited for semesterisation, but we’ve never received a satisfactory reply from the university. So we have urged the university to initiate a process of discussion which could pave the way for its implementation,” a member of the committee, who did not wish to be identified, said.

In response to the vice chancellor’s proposal to simply bifurcate the syllabus to fit the academic calendar of two semesters, the resolution states: “ We also strongly feel that any attempt to bifurcate the BA English Honours syllabus would be harmful to realizing the pedagogical objectives of the programme and thus would adversely affect the interests of the students.” In an order issued to the head of the English department, the registrar has directed him to record the names of teachers who vote for and against the semester mode. The English committee of courses passed a separate resolution condemning this order.

The above decisions were being made in room number 50 of the Faculty of Arts. Teachers of English and other subjects staged an academic vigil outside to reiterate their rejection of the semester proposal.

“ The Faculty of Arts was out of bounds for us teachers and the proctor told us that this was because the university did not want the proceedings of the committee to be disrupted,” Nandita Narain, a professor of mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, who was part of the vigil outside the Faculty of Arts said.