The University Grants Commission (UGC)'s letter to all educational institutions asking them to send a list of online courses that they have selected for their teachers received criticism from the faculty members at the Delhi University. A section of teachers claimed that by sending such orders, the commission has been trying to make the university's statutory bodies "redundant".
According to the letter sent by the UGC, the universities have to send a list of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) which they have selected after getting an approval from their statutory bodies. The courses are available on the ministry of human resource development (MHRD)'s SWAYAM portal.
The teachers not only criticised the idea of conducting online fresher courses for them but also said that such directions will make statutory bodies "redundant". "The commission had asked the universities to make their statutory bodies to approve such courses. What will be the autonomy of these bodies then?" asked a member of the varsity's Academic Council, who wished to remain anonymous.
Earlier this year, the HRD ministry had decided to conduct an annual refresher training programme for them, irrespective of their seniority in a bid to help college and university teachers meet the "modern day challenges".
The training will be conducted online through its SWAYAM platform and its module has been prepared by the recently selected 75 National Resource Centres in their respective discipline. Delhi University also has one such resource center for Chemistry.
Criticising the move, teachers said that such courses will not make much difference. "Online courses will not be able to make much difference in the pedagogy of the educational institutions. We need to understand we don't even have resources to conduct such courses at the institutions," said a professor at the university.
The teacher will have to start taking the courses from October 1 onwards. The course will then be repeated in January next year, an official at the university said.
ABOUT THE COURSE
- The HRD ministry had decided to conduct an annual refresher training programme for teachers in a bid to help them meet the “modern day challenges”
- The training will be conducted online and its module has been prepared by the recently selected 75 National Resource Centres in their respective discipline
