University Grants Commission has now made it mandatory for students enrolled in the undergraduate courses at Delhi University, to take up the course in Environmental Studies in their first or second semester.
The qualifying course introduced in the current academic session will consist of 100 marks as per the scheme notified for the three-year undergraduate programme, of which 25 per cent weightage will be given to field work. Various mediums of teaching would be lectures, seminars, video presentations, field visits, excursions, project work, report writing and presentations.
“The evaluation for the course shall be undertaken by the respective colleges. The responsibility of evaluation will be of the teacher in charge for the conduct of learning of the course. After evaluation, the marks shall be sent to the examination branch through a pre-developed process,” Dean of Examinations Prof. Rup Lal wrote in a circular to the principals.
“Delhi University took a lot of time to implement this decision. Now the faculty will ensure that students are taught the subject and various topics like waste management and global climate change in detail. The college students can only educate the masses further.” – Prof. Pardha Saradhi, Department of Environmental Sciences
Ecosystems, renewable and non-renewable natural resources, biodiversity and conservation, pollution, environmental policies and practices, exploitation of mineral, land, water resources and deforestation will be among the subjects covered as part of the course.
“Although the new course will be available only in English for the current batch, future batches will be able to avail it in Hindi as well. Also, the interdisciplinary course will help impart knowledge about the earth and its resources to students from all educational backgrounds which will in turn help them develop lateral thinking in this area through better understanding of environmental issues at the local, regional and global level”, as told to ET by Prof. M.K. Pandit from the Department of Environmental Science.
According to University officials, directives for a six-month mandatory environmental science course were issued by the UGC in 2004, however, its implementation was delayed due to issues of curriculum development and upgradation of infrastructure.
Feature Image Credits: www.genee-india.comIshani Rajkhowa [email protected]
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