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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.

LSR has a very active sports organization and has been at the forefront of promoting sports since its inception. Every year, a fitness camp is held for all the students for two weeks on the campus grounds, and students are made to do rigorous physical exercises, ranging from strength training to agility training.

This year, Mr. Mahesh, the volleyball coach, alongwith Mr. Sudhir the basketball coach and Mr. Vivek, the archery coach, are conducting the fitness camp. The girls have to report for the camp at 7.15 am sharp and the camp begins with a jogging session of 15 minutes. According to Somya Gupta, the Treasurer, LSR conducts its fitness camp “a week after college begins to give the girls time to explore their college and indulge in other activities.” The speciality of the LSR NSO is the emphasis given to general candidates. Around fifty percent of the LSR NSO consists of general category candidates. This year the camp is being held from 30th July to 17th August.

The fitness camp is not restricted to physical training alone. The students also interact with prominent sports organizations and athletes as a part of the fitness camp, to learn more about the wide opportunities the sports field has to offer. Last Monday, members of the National Rope federation visited the students to interact with them about skipping and its evolution as a national sport. The students were shown some brilliant skipping techniques by professionals in the field. This week, Mr. Rahul Verghese, a specialist in running techniques, shall be visiting the students to take about running and its benefits, and Mr. Gupta, an eminent orthopaedician will be briefing them about the techniques of staying fit, and exercising safely.

The LSR NSO will begin with its individual sports practice on 20th August, and the annual cross country run, which sees an average participation of over 100 students, is also right around the corner.

 

With most of the society auditions over this week, we bet you have already been inducted in some or the other society in your college. I’m sure you feel proud when you announce that you got through the Dram Soc or the Chereo Soc or the Western Music Soc or Shakesoc for that matter. Well, here we do not plan to go on about how good and happening all these well-established societies are. However, what we are definitely looking at is the availability of other lesser known sports and activities in most of the DU colleges. So, here goes:

Hansraj College: Has a well equipped electronic shooting range even though not many shooters are there in the college. Also, one can get admission in a premium college like Hansraj by the archery quota. Besides, the Economics Department has a Yearbook committee of which students can be a part of.

Lady Shri Ram College for Women: The LSR NSO boasts of quite a few unusual sports such as Judo, Archery and Shooting. However the most curious one would be Equestrian sports. The catch with it is that for this sport one is expected to get one’s own horse and practice on one’s own premises. The college has one of the few elocution societies in DU. The extraordinarily high number of journals taken out by departments or the college itself is also a unique aspect of LSR.

Jesus and Mary College: Another surprising and rather welcoming change from the conventional Cricket, Basketball and Tennis is the BASEBALL team in JMC. It certainly has a whole lot of participation from the students. Well, all we can say is, Why should boys have all the fun?

St. Stephen’s College: A few of the lesser known societies are Cine Club (members of which critically analyse educational films and documentaries), Bazam-e-Adab (which explores various genres of Urdu Literature and organizes Shayari sessions for students), Wodehouse Society, Gandhi Study Circle, Bengali Literary Society and Kooler Talk which was recently mentioned by Shashi Tharoor in his article.

Hindu College: The fact that DU students lead in new trends and dressing sense is exemplified by the Fashion Society in Hindu. Seems like this society is pretty popular and witnesses good amount of participation from the youngsters.

Miranda House: Talking about unconventional sports and activities, in Miranda we come across unconventional names of various clubs. The Consumer Club of Miranda is called Pula and the Environment Club is called M.H. Vatavaran.

Indraprastha College for Women: Also has archery as a sport.

Looks like Delhi University is no where behind other universities in giving tremendous opportunities to the students who have unconventional and refreshing tastes.