New engineering syllabus: Students in dark, faculty stare at retrenchment

Nagpur: In a fresh twist to the ongoing stalemate between engineering teachers and the Nagpur University (NU), the Board of Studies (BoS) has decided to implement the new syllabus in phases rather than finalizing the entire four-year portion.
On the other hand, teachers from basic sciences and humanities continued to accuse the authorities of jeopardizing their careers while also keeping the aspiring engineering students in dark about the subjects they would be studying in next four years.
As per some teachers, the proposed syllabus would reduce the workload which will result in job loss. They also said that this syllabus has been prepared by a ‘select group’ in haste while suggestions from others were never called for.
Dean of science faculty GS Khadekar trashed the claims but confirmed that only first semester syllabus would be implemented from August. “Syllabus for each semester of four-years is ready but we need some more time to finalize the rest. Engineering is the biggest faculty and we were also busy with Swayam works (online course),” he said.
Former dean of engineering faculty DK Agrawal said the process of syllabus formation in long drawn and can’t be done hurriedly. “Due considerations have to be given to each affiliated college. Generally, series of workshops have to be conducted for a group subjects and at least one representative from each college has to be called by BoS. While preparing the syllabus one needs to keep the interest of students and teachers in mind,” he said.
The much-delayed exercise was undertaken by NU only in February-March this year though the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) model curriculum was notified in January 2018.
On June 17, TOI had reported how the NU sat over the implementation of the new syllabus and suddenly swung into action at the eleventh hour. In fact, workshops to ‘discuss the structure of new syllabus’ were held only on June 17 to 19.
The discussions held at different colleges were dubbed as eyewash since it would deliberated on the syllabus for just over two hours.
Later, on June 20, the BoS meeting where the engineering syllabus of first-year and 4-year scheme was to be submitted for approval was postponed further delaying the finalization of syllabus.
Workshops were conducted for physics, chemistry, mathematics and humanities at different colleges. Teachers of these subjects are worried about reduction in workload which may lead to retrenchment.
In 2012, NU had arbitrarily removed humanities while switching to the semester pattern. This had forced the faculty to approach the high court and get the subjects restored. The HC had directed the varsity to protect the interest of the teachers. Then vice chancellor Vilas Sapkal had given an affidavit to this effect. The same concern has now been raised by the electrical faculty who have written to VC SP Kane.