Days after the new semester begins in colleges across the Delhi University, final year students of BA (programme) course — having Economics as their major subject — are now left in the lurch with no clarification about the syllabus of their Skill Enhancement paper as of now.
While the students are yet to receive the syllabus for the paper, the University's Department of Economics claimed that no such paper has been designed for the semester. The paper that falls under the General Elective category, is being offered in second and third year of undergraduate students pursuing programme courses under the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS). The paper is based upon the content that leads to skill enhancement.
"We are totally clueless about the paper. Even our teachers have no idea about the syllabus. It, however, is mentioned in the new time table being issued to us," said Shubham Sharma, a third-year BA (prog) student at SGTB Khalsa College.
Agitated by the delay, teacher-in-charge of Sri Aurobindo College's Department of Economics Subhansh Singh Prasad on Tuesday wrote to the University's Department of Economics and requested them to issue a clarification.
"The Skill Enhancement Paper for the students of sixth semester of BA (programme) Economics has not been specified and there is no clear course outline for the same. Kindly look into the matter at the earliest as the semester has already begun and there is still a lot of confusion for the same," Singh wrote.
However, the Head of the Department Aditya Bhattacharyajea, in his reply, said, "Colleges and teachers were told last year that they should take the initiative to design SEC's and the Department would not be doing it. The students should take an extra SEC from their other subject."
DU had introduced CBCS in 2015 which allows students to choose from the prescribed courses, which are referred as core, elective or minor or soft skill courses. "We are the first batch under the CBCS and that's why there is more confusion. How can we chose an SEC from other subject when we have economics as our main subject," rued Ritika Singh, another student.
"How is it even possible to not have a SEC Economics paper when other departments have already issued the syllabi of their courses for the sixth semester? No such information was imparted by the department last year. If this was the case, the University should have properly communicated to the teachers and colleges," said Manoj Kumar, an Economics teacher at Satyawati (Evening) College.
