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Shaily Sharma

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According to the norm, extracurricular activities are defined as being outside the regular curriculum of a school or college. But under Delhi University’s Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), sports and Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) have been pinned as obligatory. Cultural Activities including NCC, Sports, NSS and Extra Curricular Activity are an integral part of the programme and all students will have to take up a cultural activity in Semester III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII in some form.

“In a way, making ECAs compulsory will boost up the societies’ performance, but on the other hand it will be more of a burden on the authorities and societies as well”, said Ayushi, Member of Alumna Cell, LSR College.

As per the curriculum, students will have to latch on papers like Integrating Mind, Body & Heart (IMBH) in the first two semesters and Cultural Activity (CA) from the third to the eighth semester. Indoor and outdoor teaching like visiting a museum or showing an informative movie and other fieldwork are some of the threshold activities included.

Making sports and ECA mandatory was objected by several teachers across the University. According to them, imposing Sports or ECA on over 1.5 lakh university students is absurd. It is like imposing homogeneity.

Arshiya, Member of NSS, Jesus & Mary College says “Compulsory ECAs will be helpful in identifying hidden talent rather than the usual focus on rote knowledge. There will be mixed crowd, including people who are passionate and others lacking interest and one can’t really hope to get the best of a student this way”

To ensure that all students get access to the activities they want and need, should ECAs be part of the curriculum? Let’s canvas the matter further.

Merits:

  • In some countries, the educational systems are only based on fixed curriculum with a number of books and learning materials that most people consider them as insufficient or restrictive for the student’s comprehension skills and imaginations. Although it is now believed that today’s the best educational systems constitute not only a curriculum but also extra-curricular social or cultural activities which have many advantages like increase in sociability, learning new things and better motivation.
  • Due to the fact that people will spend some time on extra-curricular activities in addition to studies, as a result, they will feel motivated, emotionally better and ready to take the challenge of studying varieties.
  • Companies are looking for all-rounded students. While high marks serve as a testament to an applicant’s studiousness and intelligence, they do not indicate the type of person the applicant is. These activities lessen the likelihood of spurring anti social behavior and increase career prospects.

Demerits:

  • Balancing academics work with extracurricular activities can be stressful for some students, especially when an abundance of activities (including travel!) takes up valuable time they need for studies or completing assignments.
  •  Students will have to stay out later than usual which can be tiring.
  • A lot of them may find it difficult to get the right activity.
  • Adding to all of these, the way societies function in most colleges is deeply hierarchical. So, while one might take up an activity due to the ‘compulsory notion’, making a mark in that field is not guaranteed. This might demotivate a lot of students.

One of the spotlighting features of the proposed scheme is that students will be awarded credit points for different papers as well as co-curricular activities. So if a student shines at sport, he can seek credit for it and avoid studying for a paper.

Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC), University Of Delhi plumped for Students with disabilities for an educational expedition to UK, to King’s College, London, and the University Of Edinburgh, Scotland. Professor Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University and Mr. Rob Lynes, Country Director India joined forces to bring the visit to fruition.

EOC had send letters to all the colleges and the EOC in charges of the colleges contacted the first and second semester students with disability. Out of about 100 entries send by the colleges of Delhi University to the University EOC, 22 were short listed. Two student volunteers of Delhi University and 6 faculty members were identified by EOC for the Education Excursion of Excellence for students with disability. Students had the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge about unexampled and latest technologies in the field of disability rehabilitation. Also, the visit widened their noetic purview through interaction with other students with disabilities, teachers and professionals abroad.

University officials and helpers accompanied the students. The leader of the deputation was Shri Z.V.S Prasad, and Dr. Bipin Tiwary was the coordinator. The programme catered plentiful opportunity for the groups to establish contacts and exchange ideas, bring knowledge and circularize shared experiences, thereby paving the way to joint programmes and joint research in the future.

The journey initiated at Indira Gandhi Airport. This educational Excursion was the first of its kind for students with disability which was supported by the key ministries in India Staff from the Equal Opportunity Cell of Delhi University and British Council are a part of the group.

The student’s keenness to get to an international University and interact, learn and expand their horizons was very evident. Students could apparently notice some amount of transition in the cultural variation on the very first day. The day concluded with discussion, interaction and reflection regarding the experiences. Such a voyage is must for successful culmination and explicating a holistic framework for persons with disabilities is dished out by journey of this sort.

Delhi University has been facing arrant chaos and bedlam ever since admissions to the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) started. It’s the first time ever that many colleges closed their doors for admissions to courses before time due to over admissions. The forking for equality, selection and caliber has been reducing with the admissions to FYUP. Colleges have been soughing under the stress. There was a torrent of applications from students at some colleges due to lower cut-offs and consequent to the same there were admissions over the ratified seats. For instance, there were 55,000 applications this year compared to 2,200 last year for the Journalism Course. By retaining the original certificates and unnecessarily detaining admission process, many colleges have also been accused of. Besides some colleges also admitted students on first-come-first-serve basis, which is out of the bound of rule books.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) casts about the aftermath of the delving by Delhi University. The University, after all, has resolved to appoint a high-octane committee headed by a retired judge to inquire over the alleged matters regarding infraction of admission norms by some colleges during the ongoing admissions. An inquiry into the issue has been originated by J.M. Khurana, the Dean, Students’ Welfare.

Six colleges namely College of Vocational Studies (CVS), Sri Aurobindo, Maharaja Agrasen, Swami Shraddhanand, Shyam Lal and Atma Ram Santan Dharma (ARSD) had promised seats to aspirants eligible in first cutoff and denied later. Applicants had to visit Dean’s office (Student Welfare) to settle issues, although many of which could be tackled at the colleges themselves. CVS confronted problems regarding English Honours admissions whereas ARSD, Maharja Agrasen College and Sri Aurobindo faced trouble at B.Tech in Computer Science, B.Tech in Electronics, Physics and Chemistry, respectively. Also, students and parents, calling for justice, brought out strike at CVS, unfortunately which had no positive upshot.

Sanskrit, as everyone knows, is an ancient Indic language. Also referred as the language of Hinduism and the Vedas, it is the classical literary language of India.

The makers of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) however, have given Sanskrit a new form.

Under the FYUP, there will now be various courses in theatre, self-management, Indian scientific heritage and dramatics by the Department of Sanskrit, University of Delhi. Any student from Sanskrit Honours will study these courses as a part of Discipline Courses – I, which includes core subjects. There is also an introduction of archaeological subject matters such as Indian epigraphy, paleography and chronology. Students will get a chance to study climatology, ayurveda, ecology, archaeology and yoga with this modification.

“In Discipline-1, from the total of 20 subjects, 18 are intact and changes are made to 2 of them and in Discipline-2, students will be able to learn subjects like Yoga, Upanishad, etc, which will make them understand their culture better,” said Dr. Punita Sharma, Associate Professor, Sanskrit Department, Sri Venkateshwara College.

28 colleges of the University offer B.A. Sanskrit (Honours) as a course and 40 colleges will teach Sanskrit at Discipline 2. There are many part time courses run by the University which includes Diploma and Certificate Course in Sanskrit.

“According to me, students in Second Year (III Semester) should be given free option while choosing their subjects and choices should be made from all the subjects being taught at the college, removing restrictions, so that the main purpose remains undefeated.” added Dr. Punita.

The sole purpose behind this redo is to change people’s and students mindset about Sanskrit as a subject and to make them realize its grandness and importance in this new world. Also, this is to ensure that students keep up with the demands of the job market scenario.

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The Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) organised their first ever job fair on June 11 and 12, 2013 at the Delhi University Sports Complex (North Campus).  The event saw the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and 45 private companies including Wipro, NIIT, VLCC, Convergys, ICICI, Axis Capital etc. The fair was inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday.

The fair was conducted for all colleges and departments of the university. The two-day event acted as an opportunity for job seekers to be interviewed for opportunities across sectors such as IT, FMCG, real estate, health care, manufacturing, hospitality, retail and others. Students from other top educational institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi College of Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia and Amity University also participated in the fair. The event was being organised by Ventex Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. On the success of the event, Manish Thakur, Director of Ventex Hospitality Pvt Ltd said:

“It was an excellent experience to work for and organise the Delhi University’s Job Fair which happened for the first time in history.”

Besides interacting with potential recruiters, students also availed of motivational speeches by Anurag Mishra, Director, MIB, Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of New Delhi, Yoganand Shastri, Speaker of Delhi Legislative Assembly, Oscar Fernandes, Congress leader and other corporate personalities.  Around 20,000 students attended counseling sessions, personality development and other requisite trainings.

Ashok Bhagat, Cultural Secretary, DUSU informed the statistics with regard to the participation at the job fair.

“690 students were selected in the spot placement, 1200 students got internships, and 750 are shortlisted currently. The highest package was 6.5 lakhs and the minimum package given was 1.8 lakh. It’s the first time that DUSU took such an initiative and I am happy that the event ended on a successful note.”

Image Credit: Arun Hooda’s Facebook album