Semester system sparks off debate

As the side effects of the semester system become clearer, experts are trying to come up with solutions to the problem.

A seminar was held by the All India Save Education Committee at Bhudarpura to discuss various problems caused due to introduction of the semester system.

Students, teachers and principals of several municipal schools attended the seminar, which had speakers like president of Gujarat Chapter of AISEC Rohit Shukla, Bharat Mehta from Gujarat University, secretary of DSO Bhavesh Raja and retired professor of JNU, New Delhi, Ghanshyam Shah.

Building up on the session held in Vadodara last week, the biggest obstacle that the seminar discussed was the rising uncertainty. It was argued that even after finishing with the exams in April, students have to wait endlessly for the results. This creates great hardships for those who wish to take admission to other universities where the admission process is over long before the results come out.

Besides, the teachers themselves are unclear about the syllabus for the exams. Professor Kanubhai Khadadiya, convener of the seminar said, “The dropout rate in the first year of college is 30% which increases to around 50% by the time they reach the final year. Compared to last year, the dropout rate has increased by 10%.” The number of students who attend lectures regularly has also reduced.

“Earlier, the internal marks included 5 marks for attendance. Now those marks are distributed to assignments. The students are well aware of this and do not bother to attend classes,” explained Prof Khadadiya.

Another obstacle is the increased economic burden. Under the new system, the fee is almost double of what it was earlier.