DU teachers want math syllabus  problem ‘solved’

NEW DELHI:  Fifty two Mathematics teachers from various colleges of Delhi University have written to the Head, Department of Mathematics, asking for a general body meeting of all Mathematics teachers of DU to discuss the proposed structure and syllabus of the new Mathematics (Hons) course under the Five Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP).

Professors have demanded that the entire structure and syllabus for four years should be placed before the academic council for its consideration and not just the syllabus for the first year. We are deeply dismayed that not only was a GBM not called but in a meeting of a committee of select representatives called by the Department, the concerns raised by several college teachers have been brushed aside. Even the outcome of this Committee meeting has not been placed in the public domain.

On the basis of the information about the proposed structure along with the syllabi for the first two semesters that has been made available to us, we have prepared the following table of comparison between the Core papers offered in the current LOCF structure and the proposed one for the first three years, read the petition filed by the DU teachers.

The petition has highlighted that the lecture credits assigned to the core foundational courses of Analysis and Algebra have been drastically reduced in the proposed new structure from 25 each to 15 each, which will adversely affect the conceptual base of Mathematics Honours students. On the other hand, three courses that were electives in the current LOCF course and one from the PG curriculum have been put into the Core DSC courses in the proposed FYUP course. This is not desirable, as the introduction of new core courses should not be at the expense of the existing Core courses that are indispensable for laying a strong conceptual foundation.

It also said that in several papers the content that was covered in five lectures is now being proposed to be covered in three lectures which is not feasible. Either the content should be reduced or the same content should be covered over two papers instead of one.

“Colleges should not be pushed into a situation that entails students having to choose electives from external sources like MOOCS rather than use the expertise available,” said the DU teachers.