Blooper bandwagon seems to be on a graduating mode — from school to college that is. Latest to join the hall of ‘shame’ for mistakes in curriculum is Gujarat University, that too, in an attempt to modernize its syllabus. Though ‘revised’, the English curriculum for all the streams (undergraduate programmes) for the academic year 2007-08 throws up glaring errors.
For instance, the index page of the English programme synopsis says that the subject is to be at taught BA, BCom, BSc level, but excludes Fire Technology and Nursing where the subject is taught at the undergraduate level. Sources say that these courses were included in the earlier syllabus. However, lecturers teaching these courses have not yet received an intimation whether they have to continue with the old course or not.
Moving further, on page number 3, the heading states that the FYBA, BCom and BSc programmes have Compulsory English common for both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ streams. However, while the ‘A’ stream is meant for students from English medium, ‘B’ stream refers to students who did not take English as a subject in Class XII. Hence, the subject cannot be common for both the streams. Also, in many parts of the syllabus, headings are missing. For instance, the synopsis for the academic year 2007-08 sans any heading — which adds to the confusion as to whether the text is for the students of ‘A’ stream or ‘B’ stream.
In another part of the syllabus where the text for SYBA, stream ‘B’ is given, an above given paragraph is without a heading. There are also major problems in the way the syllabus is structured. For example, on page number 18, where the English Special course for third year students is given, the topics prescribed for Paper VI: History of English Literature, cites a range of topics beginning from Romantic Poetry to Pre-Raphaelite Poetry. However, according to sources in the English department of the University, most of these topics are already being taught in SYBA.
Moreover, the course content of English Language Teaching and Spoken English says that 28 marks have been allotted to Section-II, merely for Phonetic Transcription, for which, usually lesser marks are allotted. A source in the English department says that almost 14 marks of questions have been skipped over in this section. What’s more, the revised syllabus has not even seen the approval of the faculty of the Arts department as a meeting of the faculty was never called by the University to discuss the syllabus. Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Pradeep Prajapati says, "Although in a meeting of the Arts faculty conducted on December 20 last year, a resolution was passed to improve the existing syllabus and submit the same before February, 2007 and conduct a meeting of the arts faculty, no such meeting was called."
Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University, Parimal Trivedi, however, said that no mistakes have been found in the syllabus by him so far. He said, "We have already corrected the mistakes. However, it is the fundamental responsibility of the Board of Studies to correct these mistakes if there are any."
Source: expressindia.com
For instance, the index page of the English programme synopsis says that the subject is to be at taught BA, BCom, BSc level, but excludes Fire Technology and Nursing where the subject is taught at the undergraduate level. Sources say that these courses were included in the earlier syllabus. However, lecturers teaching these courses have not yet received an intimation whether they have to continue with the old course or not.
Moving further, on page number 3, the heading states that the FYBA, BCom and BSc programmes have Compulsory English common for both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ streams. However, while the ‘A’ stream is meant for students from English medium, ‘B’ stream refers to students who did not take English as a subject in Class XII. Hence, the subject cannot be common for both the streams. Also, in many parts of the syllabus, headings are missing. For instance, the synopsis for the academic year 2007-08 sans any heading — which adds to the confusion as to whether the text is for the students of ‘A’ stream or ‘B’ stream.
In another part of the syllabus where the text for SYBA, stream ‘B’ is given, an above given paragraph is without a heading. There are also major problems in the way the syllabus is structured. For example, on page number 18, where the English Special course for third year students is given, the topics prescribed for Paper VI: History of English Literature, cites a range of topics beginning from Romantic Poetry to Pre-Raphaelite Poetry. However, according to sources in the English department of the University, most of these topics are already being taught in SYBA.
Moreover, the course content of English Language Teaching and Spoken English says that 28 marks have been allotted to Section-II, merely for Phonetic Transcription, for which, usually lesser marks are allotted. A source in the English department says that almost 14 marks of questions have been skipped over in this section. What’s more, the revised syllabus has not even seen the approval of the faculty of the Arts department as a meeting of the faculty was never called by the University to discuss the syllabus. Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Pradeep Prajapati says, "Although in a meeting of the Arts faculty conducted on December 20 last year, a resolution was passed to improve the existing syllabus and submit the same before February, 2007 and conduct a meeting of the arts faculty, no such meeting was called."
Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University, Parimal Trivedi, however, said that no mistakes have been found in the syllabus by him so far. He said, "We have already corrected the mistakes. However, it is the fundamental responsibility of the Board of Studies to correct these mistakes if there are any."
Source: expressindia.com