The government is contemplating conducting a common entrance test (CET) for admission to all undergraduate and post-graduate programmes offered by the universities in the State from the next academic year.
“The new system will save time and energy for the students and spare them from the pressure of preparing for multiple exams. They will qualify for admission in any college or university in the State by writing a single test,” said K. Hemachandra Reddy, Chairman of the A.P. State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE).
The council has initiated a slew of measures as a part of reforms in the higher education sector. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching impact on the education sector has prevented the council from going ahead with its proposed CET from the current academic year.
The council has also issued a common academic calendar to all the higher education institutions. The calendar for the academic year 2020-21 will make special provisions in view of the loss of teaching days due to the lockdown.
Innovative programmes
The pandemic has put the council on tenterhooks, spurring it to design innovative programmes to take classroom lessons to the doorstep of the students, and it came up with a Learning Management System (LMS).
To help the students cope with the lost academic time, the council has designed this ‘anytime and anywhere learning mode’ under which the course content, videos of the lectures and other learning resources will be made available on the council’s portal.
“The LMS can be utilised by students perusing UG and PG in professional as well as non-professional courses,” explains Mr. Hemachandra Reddy.
The council has identified subject coordinators and content generators, who recently underwent a training in the nuances of online teaching in a faculty development programme conducted in collaboration with IIT-Kurnool.
Mr. Hemachandra Reddy also talks about ‘Remote Learning Centres’ that will facilitate learning by students in villages.
“Every village will have a device that will host the content. It can be lessons on how to gain proficiency in English language, tips on how to prepare for competitive exams, or just exam-orientation content. We will make available the content to students in villages,” he said.
Engineering courses
Recognising the need to design a curriculum for engineering courses that caters to the needs of the quick learners and also the slow learners, the council has put together a ‘basic’ curriculum, comprising 160 credit programmes.
“This is designed keeping in mind the average and below-average students. The quick learners have the option of grabbing 20 additional credits and secure an Honours degree,” says Mr. Hemachandra Reddy.