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Class Divisions in Indian Education: Interim FY25 Budget Reflects Priorities Amidst Systemic Challenges

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The interim FY25 budget shows decreased spending on higher education while school education allocation increases, reflecting governmental priorities amidst India’s class divisions. Highlighted by “12th Fail,” it underscores systemic challenges like corruption and caste barriers hindering equal access to quality education and exacerbating socioeconomic disparities.

“If the citizens were educated, it could be a real problem for the leaders.”

-(12th Fail)

In the interim budget proposed for FY25, the government has decreased spending on higher education. From 1.27% of its budget to FY24, the allocated amount is 1% for FY25. Contrary to this, the allocation for the School Education Department increased from 68,804.85 crore to 72,473.80 crore. What does this tell us about the priorities of the government emerging on the grounds of the existing class division prevalent in India?

12th Fail, built upon the sentimental-driven idea of success in India, showcases the perpetual state of the caste system, the prevalent corruption, and attaining success by meritocratic means amidst disparities. Manoj Kumar Sharma, the protagonist of the story hailing from the infamous region of Chambal, is the middle child from a poverty-stricken household whose only earning member lost his job because of the existing corruption. Portraying the reality of the lowest-income class, the family struggles to arrange two square meals to feed the children and elderly.

The layers of stifling segregation in our society make it impossible for people of the lowest strata, in comparison with the elite and the middle class, to acquire the highly competitive job positions in the country. This population pyramid outlines the division of resources, where the top 10% holds 77 percent of the total national wealth. According to the available data, it would take 941 years for a minimum-wage worker in rural India to earn what the top-paid executive at a leading Indian company makes in a year. It is necessary to provide equal access to education for all to tackle the existing inequality. Even after the Right to Education Act of 2009, the increasing enrollments in the school are inversely related to the decrease in the quality of education. In government schools, absenteeism of teachers, unfair means of conducting exams, lack of basic study materials like proper pen and paper, and the motivation among students and authorities to improve are some of the challenges. According to a report by UNESCO’s International Institute of Education Planning, high rates of absenteeism (at 25%) show evident corruption and its negative influence on the vulnerable years of a student. The aspirations of the lower-income students are wiped out under these circumstances, forming a mass majority of the students in these public schools who cannot recite correct answers to basic questions. Painted through the movie ‘12th Fail’, Manoj exhibits to the interviewers the meek reality of his background when he says, “Our teachers helped us to cheat.”.

When compared with other South Asian developing countries, India is performing exceptionally well in terms of collective economic growth, whereas the human welfare indicators are struggling to meet the average measure. Turning into a melting pot and dealing with problems on multiple fronts, the government juggles to prioritise the spending of the limited available resources. In this year’s budget, we saw a sharp decline in funding for the Ministry of Education, which conflicts with the New Education Policy 2020, which seeks to spend 6 percent of the GDP on education. The allocation to education for FY 24–25 is 7 percent lower than the revised estimates for the current fiscal year. The University Grants Commission has received a cut as the centre reduced its grant by 60 percent. The funding to the IITs and IIMs faced a reduction of Rs 60 crore and Rs 119 crore. These narrowed avenues at the top-tier colleges increase the cutthroat competition to secure a seat. The budget for school education has received an increased amount of Rs 73,008 crore from Revised Estimates (RE), which is almost Rs 3,250 crore more than last year’s allocation and is the highest of all time. The government aims to use them to deliver quality teaching in a developed holistic environment for nurturing a future generation for the country’s future.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ‘12th Fail’, a biopic, very accurately showcases the ground reality of our education system. Manoj gives up on cheating, but the environment he belonged to remains the same, where the Mafia is protected by political patronage, not only putting the lives of the young students at stake for the sake of personal monetary gains and regional control but also breaking the spirit of the man residing in these regions, the rural areas that comprise 70 percent of the Indian population.

India ranks 93 in the corruption index: ‘Ye jo fine ke naam par tu maang raha hai na…yeh ghoos hai’. This ailment is so severe and ingrained in our society in the form of privately owned, corrupt education institutions making extraordinary money with their skyrocketing fee structures to help students crack highly competitive examinations like JEE, NEET, and our very own UPSC. Contributing to the misery as demonstrated in the movie “2 lakh Hindi medium vidhyarthiyo mein kewal 25-30 hi ban pate hain IAS IPS,”  highlights the prevailing discrimination on the grounds of linguistic chauvinism, where the sophisticated Anglican tongue spoken by the elite draws a line that the people belonging to lower ethnic groups find difficult to cross to get to the respectable jobs.

This embedded segregation and socioeconomic inequalities are only widening due to the failure and lack of incentive to take up the righteous implementation of the policies. The drastic difference in access to education is a mole on the flags bearing the’socialist’, ‘justice’, and ‘equal’ society whose ecosystem aims to provide uniform opportunities to all. At this crucial phase, when the government wants us to aim high, it is also creating these loopholes that are only going to leave the nation-building roots hollow. Our Manoj made it to the top ‘without oxygen’ support, celebrating the UPSC struggle of an aspirate. The dehumanising reality of our times and the plight remain shrouded under ‘Ye hum sab ki ladai hai, ek ka jeet hoga toh karodon bhed-bakriyon ka jeet hoga.’, developing an ‘Indian Dream’ of millions of people aspiring to climb the social ladder.

Read Also: Just Looking Like a “How?”: Questioning SC’s Stand on Regulating Coaching Institutes

Image Credits: The Week

Divya Malhotra

[email protected]

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Campus Central

Shockingly Low Admissions for New BTech. Courses at DU

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The newly introduced BTech courses at DU had few takers, leaving many seats vacant. The university decided to conduct spot admissions as a result.

Admission statistics recently rolled in for newly introduced BTech courses at the University of Delhi. These admissions under the Faculty of Technology are based on the JEE Mains score. There have been few takers, as many seats are vacant compared to the authorized capacity. For the computer science course, 20 seats were occupied, while only two seats were filled for electronics and communication, and just one seat was taken for the electrical engineering course. Following this, DU decided to conduct spot admissions.

The seat allotment result for the BTech programs was released on September 11, and colleges will verify applications by September 14. The last date for payment of the admission fee shall remain September 15, and there will be no option to upgrade or withdraw.

Many opinions have been expressed in trying to find an explanation for such low admission numbers. Some teachers have said that the programs aren’t affordable for many because they’re expensive by the standards of a central university. Others say that there is hesitation among students to opt for engineering courses at a university more known for its humanities and commerce departments.

“I was unaware of the BTech courses offered at DU. Nevertheless, I would have still given preference to private engineering colleges with well-established courses and faculty.”

-Vardaan, a first-year student at IIIT-Delhi

Thus, apprehension towards DU’s BTech courses does exist among students, especially since the department is fairly new and will take time to solidify.

A university official also said that BTech admissions for this year had already been completed at other universities while they started late at DU, which is why seats remained vacant. They hope to regularize admissions from next year onward. Perhaps the culmination of all the reasons mentioned is an explanation for the low statistics.

Another aspect of the situation that sparked discussion was the setting up of these courses in the first place. Many are of the opinion that if the administration does want to expand its science-based courses, it must first improve the existing infrastructure for BSc courses.

“When almost every college of the university has infrastructure complaints and science courses are lacking in lab equipment and research prospects, why not focus on investing in these areas?”

-Sanviti, a third-year BSc Microbiology student

Featured image credits: Hindustan Times

Read also: Under the Shadow of DUSU Elections

Arshiya Pathania

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Campus Central

Text Removal and Renaming in DU’s History Syllabus: Brahmanization Term and Paper on Inequality Dropped

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DU Arts Faculty

The revised history syllabus for the fourth and fifth semester undergraduate students, which was approved by the DU Academic Council on May 26, has been ratified by the Executive Council on June 9, 2023. The removal of a paper on inequality, the elimination of the term “Brahmanization,” and the addition of matriarchal perspectives are some of the changes that have been introduced.

On June 9, 2023, the University of Delhi’s Executive Council, the apex academic decision-making body at the university, ratified the amended curriculum that had been approved by the Academic Council on May 26. The Academic Council revised the history syllabus for the fourth and fifth semesters under the new Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP). A few of the changes include the deletion of the words Brahminization and ‘Brahmanical’, the removal of the paper on “Inequality and Differences”, and the introduction of matriarchal perspectives.

The revision aims to align the syllabus with the suggestions of the New Education Policy, NEP 2020.

-Shri Prakash Singh, Director, South Campus, in a report by The Indian Express

The phrase Brahminization has been removed from the fourth and fifth semester Generic Elective paper ‘Religion and Religiosity’, which has been renamed ‘Religious Traditions in the Indian Subcontinents’. One of the topics in the paper titled ‘Approaches to Brahmanization in the Early Mediaeval Era’ has been renamed ‘Approaches to Shaiva, Shakta, and Vaishnava in the Early Mediaeval Era’. In addition, the revised syllabus removed the term ‘Brahmanical’ from the fifth-semester paper on the Brahmanical Patriarchy. Furthermore, the title of the article has been changed from ‘Evolution of Patriarchy’ to ‘Evolution of Patriarchy in Early India’.

Apart from this, the paper titled ‘Inequality and Differences’ in semester four, which talks about the concepts of jati, varna, caste, class, and gender and their evolution, has been withdrawn.

Constructive suggestions are also given — there is now more diversity and more information. It was a unanimous decision and the changes were reported to the academic council way in advance. There is no dissent. Suggestions were given by the standing committee as well.”

-Dean of South Campus, DU, in a report by Jagran Josh

Furthermore, the paper Women in Indian History will provide fresh perspectives on matriarchy. The units that were previously centred around patriarchy will now also include discussions around matriarchy. The primary goal of this modification, reportedly, is to make students aware of and have a diverse viewpoint.

Image Credits: Devansh Arya for DU Beat

Read Also: Gandhi replaced with Savarkar in BA Syllabus; Row Erupts in DU

Dhruv Bhati
[email protected]

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Campus Central

DU Standing Committee Proposes to Drop History Elective Course on Caste and Gender

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DU

The decision to drop the history elective course ‘Inequality and Difference’ has invited vehement criticism and concern from members of the academic community who believe the course to be an important means of navigating the history of India’s oppressive social systems that affect present-day inequalities in more ways than one.

The Standing Committee for Academic Matters of Delhi University, headed by the Vice Chancellor, has suggested dropping an elective course titled ‘Inequality and Difference’ offered by the History Department of the University. The elective course included issues around gender and caste and helped students gain a historical understanding of institutions such as caste. This development came about after a similar proposal by the standing committee to scrap a paper on B.R. Ambedkar from the B.A. Programme Philosophy syllabus.

This proposal has caused a tussle between the committee and various professors and academicians in the department who have previously taught the course. The committee stated that they are considering dropping the course because concepts of caste and gender are already being taught. On the other hand, professors in the department reasoned that the course helped students view inequality through a historical lens and hence greatly contributed to a nuanced historical understanding of persisting inequalities and biases.

The course is offered to students of different honours degrees as a generic elective paper in their fourth semester and has been part of the curriculum for more than seven years. It comprises four units. The first unit, titled ‘Structural and Forms of Inequalities: Normative and Historical Experiences,” involves discussions around oppressive structures and social systems such as the Varna system, slavery, etc. The second unit is on ‘Gender, Household, and Public Sphere’. The third unit is on tribes and communities of forest dwellers. The last unit is called “Indian Constitution and the Questions of Equality’. The works of historians and scholars such as Uma Chakravarti, Romila Thapar, and Sunil Kumar, among various others, made it to the reading list for the course.

The move has invited condemnation from various members of the academic community who believe this to be “an act of political indoctrination” and alleged propagandising of education. Dr. Maya John, a professor at the Department of History at the University and an Academic Council member, stated in conversation with the Quint that the fate of the course is yet to be decided and although they hope to retain the course, once the decision passes through the Standing Committee, it is difficult to reverse it.

It is a rich course that speaks about the institutionalisation of inequality and the resistance to it. It is the history department’s way of engaging students from other departments, in conversations about the various structures of inequality in the Indian subcontinent. It teaches students to think historically about varna, caste, gender inequality, and racial and ethnic differences.

– Dr Maya John, in conversation with the Quint

Professor Abha Dev Habib, from the Department of Physics at Miranda House, raised concerns regarding the drastic changes being brought about to the academic curricula at the school and university levels.

Read also: DU Philosophy Department Opposes Decision to Scrap Course on Ambedkar

Featured Image Credits: Devesh Arya for DU Beat

Tulip Banerjee 
[email protected]  

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Admissions 2016

DU Freshers- What to expect from college?

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First of all, you made it. Congratulations. That’s bright enough! Second of all, Delhi University is going to be everything you imagined. Okay not everything, but it’s going to be nothing less than three maddening, crazy and heartening years for you! But before you stop reading and start texting with anticipation and excitement, let us (your humble seniors) clear some of your misconceptions.

What to look out for:

  1. Jam Packed Social Calendar: Of the many things students will need to sacrifice this year, their social life is not one of them. With the new found freedom, the newbies can now go have a ball with their new found friends!
  2. Better societies and awesomer fests: As ECA and sports activities are as important marks, fests and societies will get a boost and improve drastically. With the fucchas working even harder to prove their mettle, it’s safe to expect each college putting up a grand show!
  3. College protests: As the hand of the ABVP and NSUI still looms large over DU, most freshers will be witness to their spectacularly conducted and overly dramatized protests. With political connections, there students will definitely try to bring the house down.

Busting Some Myths:

  1. Ragging: Contrary to the common belief of – ‘Tu kyu kar rha hai? Fucche se karwa lenge!’ DU isn’t exactly a frame out of 3 idiots and you will definitely not have to perform crazy stunts or walk around pretending to be James Bond just because a senior told you to do so. With strict anti-ragging laws, your worst nightmare should be cranky teachers and definitely not your seniors!
  2. The Ladies/ The Studs: For all those who stayed single to find their soul mates in DU, you’ll be waiting some more time. Contrary to popular beliefs, the girl’s colleges are not a pond of budding super models. And not all boys look like they were ripped off magazine covers. They too are humans, give them some credit for looking perfectly human and not like porcelain dolls.
  3. Equality Among Colleges: Okay so you’ve probably been expecting this all the way, but suddenly your best friend from the other college will become ‘them’ and your newly found united college buddies will be ‘us’.
  4. Completely Fudged up Timelines: If you had been cursing your friends, family, associates etc. for not being punctual all this time, you are about to experience a whole new level of procrastination. The University declares results exactly a month after its due date, if you’re lucky. Be glad that’s the only thing the university does. And if you have any other issues to sought with the administrative department, then god save you!

By Raghav Chopra ([email protected]) and Akriti Gupta ([email protected])

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DUB Speak

CBCS Poll: After FYUP, has CBCS too missed the mark with students? Find out!

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Delhi University has been famous for changing the academic systems very often. DU introduced the Four Year Under graduation Programme (FYUP) in 2013 which was subsequently rolled back in 2014, leaving the second year students under a semester system. DU introduced the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) in 2015. 

The system, just a year old has invited both criticism and appreciation from all directions.

The system which was implemented in a hurry has a few loopholes to it. The introduction of CBCS has led to the liquidation of Honours course as papers under Honour courses were cut down to accommodate the Generic and AECC papers. The purpose of introducing CBCS was to provide a plethora of choices for students to choose from and study. However many colleges, don’t follow any such rule. A number of colleges have completely eliminated the ‘choice’ in the choice based credit system and only provide either a limited number of subjects to choose from or don’t provide a choice at all, thus defying the whole purpose of the system.

The papers too have polarised difficulty levels. 47.5% of the respondents who took a poll regarding CBCS admitted to not being fully satisfied with the difficulty levels of their Generic papers- which were either too easy or too difficult. Many colleges haven’t been able to adjudge the faculty requirements, which have led to less qualified faculty teaching the generic subjects and making it more burdensome on the students. 53.8% of the respondents felt that the faculty needed improvement.


There is also a general lack of seriousness and understanding of the system. There were no clear guidelines to help guide the professors and students through the syllabus and the changed curriculum leading to confusion. 49.4% respondents admitted to not taking the Generic paper as seriously as their core papers and spent less time studying for it. “The idea of studying something other than the core subject would be great if only the GE was taught properly. Vague syllabus taught half-heartedly ruins it.” says Kriti Kaur from SGTB Khalsa College


Despite having being criticized, it has its own share of positives. Some of the most significant advantages of CBCS are that it provides a well-rounded by giving students access to a more holistic approach to education with the introduction of Generic and AECC papers. In an increasingly globalized economy, employers are often on the lookout for individuals who have relatively specialized knowledge of more than one field. It also allows students to study subjects of their preference as many students are unable to pursue the course of their choice for a number of reasons, such as unrealistic cutoffs or parental pressure. In this scenario, a GE acts as a saviour for students who can finally study the subject of their preference.

College is perhaps the most crucial time of a student’s life during which he or she finally becomes a well-adjusted adult (or so we hope.) All professional settings require a basic understanding of time management and prioritisation. The addition of the GE and AECC courses therefore propels students into an environment in which they must balance three different fields of study. “I think it offers great opportunities with expansion of a holistic education. It’s a great option for people who wanted to study more than one subject in university, and my experience has been almost entirely positive with it.” says a student from Daulat Ram College

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

According to the poll, the most relevant concern of the respondents was the inadequacy and non transparency of the evaluation system, with an overwhelming majority of 88.2% claiming that the evaluation system is confusing with regard to SGPA’s and grades and has left them unhappy. “It doesn’t matter how good your internal marks were as compared to other students, you get the same grade in the subject. I think the internal marks were not taken into consideration while evaluating the grades. I would prefer the old percentage system any day as one gets to know how he/she performed in the respective subjects.” said a student from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.

“My college offers only 2 options for GE. Most students are not able to study the subjects they want to. Though there is nothing wrong with the grading system but I feel we need to understand the system better. Both the teachers and students have no idea what the grades stand for.” says Bhavya Mehta from JMC. A large number of students have rejected the system with 65.9 % respondents wanting the system to be discontinued as opposed to the 34.1% who want CBCS to continue but with rectifications.

Q. Did you find last semester's evaluation confusing?
Q. Did you find last semester’s evaluation confusing?
Q. Should grading in CBCS be replaced by percentage system?
Q. Should grading in CBCS be replaced by percentage system?
Q. Do you want CBCS to continue?
Q. Do you want CBCS to continue?

While the system was introduced with a lot of promises, students often find themselves at a slippery slope when it comes to evaluating their performance in CBCS. “The idea of integrating courses, college and universities is great but implementation was not at all upto the mark, affecting the students under this system. Thus the system seems to be a floundering one with a bleak future. The evaluation of this system is just another blunder leaving no scope for students to reevaluate their performances.”  Says Gerush Bahal from Aryabhatta College.

Feature image credits : indiatoday.intoday.in 

Akshara Srivastava

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Vineeta Rana

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DUB Speak

The Diary of a Pre-Final Year Student

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Dear Diary,

Since you are one of my loyal friends, today I’m going to trouble you for a little while longer than usual.

The last few days in particular have been a little uneasy for me. Amidst a million tasks of getting the clearance form signed by the authorities, standing in queues for the admit card which is essentially going to carry an embarrassing picture of mine on the top right corner, coping with the mammoth syllabus for examinations, dealing with starvation at night in the hostel, I have experienced something significant bothering me.

I have been facing a fear for the past few days—the fear of being left behind; the fear of losing out on a thousand beautiful connections that I’ve made in these three years of college. I believe, I have already told you how mine is one of the two four-year undergraduate programmes in my college. I will be completing my third year of college in this month, which means that all the third-year people from other courses will be graduating. I can’t believe this time has come so early.

While I sit and watch my friends getting all worked up about their life after college and being stuck between ambivalent choices and getting all restive about what the coming years have in store for them, I am just afraid of letting them go. Mama always told me that people will come and go, the best we can do is make the most of the time we spend with them. I am happy with myself for doing that. Everyone says they’ll stay in touch, but I wonder. I wonder how little time they will get while they’re busy solving real-world problems. That brings me to wonder about the plenty of time I’ll have to deal with such less number of familiar faces around.

I’ve have been thinking about the things I’ll say to them. But being the inexpressive person that I am, I doubt I’ll ever be able to do that so I’ll pour them all right in front of you. I want to tell them to relax, move a bit slowly. In a world which is nothing more than a ground for rat-races, I want to advise them to live and not survive. I want to tell them to make that one trip which was always planned in college, but was never taken seriously (take me along, maybe). I have spoken to a lot of friends and I know that these three years in college might not have made them realise what they want to do, but have surely made them aware of what they don’t. I hope they do not fall into the false and tempting traps of ‘social laws’ and explore until they find their calling. I desire to tell them how I believe that they’ll surely play their part in making this world a beautiful place. Lastly, I want to wish them luck and thank them for filling these three wonderful years of my life.

Yours,

Shaurya

 

Shaurya Sahai

[email protected]

 

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DUB Speak

Dear Delhi University, thanks for effectively ruining three years of my life.

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My college days are about to end, and I feel really old looking back at the hectic three years that I’ve spent as an FYUP student. I still remember the time when my boards were about to end. I come from a small town and it’s easy to opt for Science in class 11th there thinking you will be able to handle it just like everyone else. But it never really happens according to the plan, which is why I decided on following my passion and pursuing English Honours right after boards ended.

This wouldn’t come as a surprise to many, but my only choice was Delhi University. Unaware of the entire overhaul of the system, I had complete faith thinking nothing would be better than being a DU student as an undergrad. I couldn’t have been more wrong. If I say that the last three years were difficult for me because of an entire new system, it would be an understatement. The last three years were exhausting, sapped me off my entire energy every single day, and made me question ‘did I ever deserve this?’

Maybe there are other FYUP students who do not agree with me. But, let’s start with measuring the flaws that the entire system had which affected us majorly. Our entire first year was wasted in pursuing Foundation Courses, something that we should have never been done at college level at all. A lot of colleges conducted FC classes after 12 which affected our college timetable the most. In CVS, my first lecture started at 9 in the morning and college ended for me at 4:30 in the evening, making it almost difficult to manage anything. Nearly all students attended college till evening thinking that attendance mattered, and after one year a notice was issued that attendance isn’t an issue for us at all.

Let’s talk about the course structure. B. Tech courses were started without being given a single thought. Shaurya Sahai, a 3rd year B.Tech student of Hans Raj College said, ‘In such a competitive world, we put trust in DU and now it has landed us in such a messed up situation.  We have no proper infrastructure, no proper course structure; labs are in a condition which cannot, at any cost, enable an engineering student to perform practicals properly. We have to take care of our studies and how should we cover up for the things that we haven’t been taught and then there are issues like AICTE approval which divert our attention because we are fighting for it. University is chilling and has no concern for the 2500 students.’

Other courses like Economics Honours, English Honours, B.Com Honours, were improperly structured, with a lot of important papers getting deleted from the syllabus. When FYUP was rolled back, our third year became exceedingly difficult with an abundance of subjects and no proper teachers to provide the right kind of cohesion needed. This is true especially for English Honours where each paper is being taught by 3-4 teachers, mostly ad-hoc, perpetually failing to strike a balance between all the books and teaching us in the right order. The restructuring also deleted an important DC-1 paper that taught us about research methodology, thus defeating the purpose of enrolling in an Honours course.

We never really had a ‘back’ system, and mostly were not failed. Thanks to this norm, we lost any kind of motivation whatsoever to study our subjects sincerely. After asking a lot of students from different colleges, I was convinced that it was not just the University, but professors as well who wanted to get rid of us because we are just a batch of students meant for experiments alone.

Thank you Delhi University for considering us as guinea pigs that you needed for your experiments. And for giving us this life where we don’t know what we did in the past three years because of the improper structure, never really learnt the importance of marks, assignments, attendance, and are not even close to being proper graduates (according to the course we pursued) who can be recruited.

Sudisha Misra

[email protected] 

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Campus Central

AISA holds meeting to demand roll back of FYUP

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Amid raised slogans seeking the newly elected BJP government to roll back FYUP as promised in their manifesto, an AISA member criticized FYUP saying, ” The time isn’t the real concern, but the subjects are. The teachers aren’t trained well to be able to teach these subjects. At places, Political science teachers are expected to be teaching Mathematics related courses.”
The representatives of AISA are of the view that the second time elected Padma Shri awardee Vice Chancellor Prof.  Dinesh Singh has not been able to justify neither the introduction of FYUP nor as to why it is a better structure.
The AISA has been previously involved in making endeavors to facilitate the roll back of FYUP. It conducted a referendum  dated August 22nd, 2013, wherein more than 90 percent of Delhi University students had voted against the motion of four year under graduation, foundation courses and the idea of multiple exits. ( See here.)
The new BJP government at centre has given everyone high hopes of promising change courtesy the Achche din aane waale hain slogans. It’ll be interesting to see if Delhi University students too, get their share of happiness from the supposed revolutionary government.
By Bharat Mohindru with inputs from Ishaan Gambhir
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DUB Speak

The curious case of inconsistent Internal Assessment under the FYUP

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The introduction of the FYUP is probably the biggest reform undertaken by the University in a long time. One would like to believe that a change so mighty will be properly planned out. Alas, we all know that this hasn’t been the case.

One of the less talked about issues with the new system is the huge increase in the weightage given to Internal Assessments or IA. Previously, each subject, other than the ones requiring practical examinations, was allotted 25 marks as IA. The pattern was loosely the same across colleges, and consisted of assignments, class tests, presentations and attendance.

While this still remains true for the Discipline Courses, the Foundation Course teachers have been given the freedom, (or burden?) of allotting 55 marks on their own. The actual ‘exam’ in this case, which is for 20 marks, is little more than a joke, and also checked internally i.e. by the teachers of the respective colleges. To put it in perspective, 270 out of 500 marks now lie solely with your teachers. This translates to 54% of your overall grade and 73.3% of your FC marks which depend more on your luck than on your learning abilities.

Am I blaming ‘luck’ only because I’m a sore loser? Well let’s think about this, the average IA scores vary drastically not just from college to college, but also from teacher to teacher. Whereas some colleges have adopted the method of assessing their students fairly and awarding marks with restraint, others are making full use of the opportunity to help their students score much better. Have you and your classmates been given a perfect 55 even in subjects like Hindi and English? Were you taken aback at how high you’ve scored even in subjects and classes you barely attended?

A situation which places nearly 3/4th of your FC score in the teacher’s hands is bound to promote favoritism and bias. Students find themselves losing out on marks in group discussions that never happened and extra credits they weren’t informed about. Even the teachers had come out against this shift in mark distribution, calling it the University’s way of washing its hands off tedious work.

Sports and ECA students are awarded grace marks in Foundation Courses, but even that has no fixed guidelines. Some colleges just add 8 marks for each FC and some mark the student on his or her actual performance in the said extra-curricular activity.

The CCE reform that the CBSE Board had introduced in secondary school education faced similar criticism. Internal Assessment should definitely be a part of a student’s evaluation, but is 55 marks under the same really justified? Especially when classes might not even be held, and there are Professors who aren’t able to recall a student’s name, let alone his or her performance in class? It’s indeed sad how under the new system, being a sincere student doesn’t count for much, but being a sweet talker sure does.

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