The shift to the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) in Delhi University also led to the incorporation of the much hyped and criticised Foundation Courses. The University also sanctioned some books and extra classes in adherence to the same. The courses sublimed into the regular college hours easily and students accepted them as a part of their curriculum. But now, with the culmination of the 1st semester exams, many eyebrows are being raised on the mere basis of these courses.
The emerging concern here is with respect to the questions that propped up during the examinations. As we approached the students to gather their sentiments on the same, one could easily figure out the angst in them. “I came to college to receive education of higher quality and learn things my school life prepared me for 13 years, not to do things as juvenile as writing a paragraph on national harmony”, said Saptarshi Lahiri, pursuing political science from SGTB Khalsa College. The questions which came in the exams merely connoted themselves to the respective courses.
For example, a student had to write an essay on the ‘Importance of festivals in integrating different religions of India’, in the exam of FC-Hindi, something which he/she could have written on the basis of mere general knowledge. Not only Hindi, but various other FCs had similar questions.
“Anyone could have answered them (questions) without even attending a single class”, said Roopali Handa, a student from SRCC, while referring to a question, ‘To write an article on social networking sites’ which came in the exam of Information Technology. Similar reactions were seen from those who came out after giving the exam for FC – Maths. ‘The material provided in the book and questions asked in the exam were irrelative. For example, Q5 required a person to make a bar graph or pie chart for which there are few methods, which were though not mentioned in book’, said Kalee Kapoor of Matreyi college.
One can easily figure out the increasing rage pertaining to FCs among the students. With DUTA demanding a rollback and the rising sentiments of students who are unhappy with the inclusion of FCs, along with 44 colleges against the FYUP, the Foundation Courses as well as the FYUP seem to be in deep trouble.
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