Aspiring teachers get tips to crack NET/SET

The English department of St Mira’s College in association with University of Pune (UoP) organised a two-day state-level postgraduate (PG) seminar ‘Beyond MA-The path to success in NET/SET’ from January 17-18 on the college campus.

The seminar for English graduates is an annual feature of the department, designed for those who aspire for a career in teaching at college-level. The seminar guided MA students on how to succeed in their attempt to pass the NET/SET, a crucial eligibility test for aspiring lecturers.

“Aspirants need to have comprehensive knowledge of literature, language and criticism but the MA course does not equip them with sufficient proficiency. The gap between what they know after doing an MA and what they need to know to pass the NET/SET is huge. It is this gap that the seminar addressed,” said professor Mohini Khot (HoD, English department, St Mira’s College).

The speakers who provided guidance at the seminar were SB Gokhale (former HoD, English department, UoP), Raj Rao (professor, English literature and creative writing, English department, UoP), Vivekanand Phadke (vice principal, Fergusson College), Kamal Mehta (head, English department, Saurashtra University, Rajkot), and Prabha Sampath (dean, Sadhu Vaswani Institute of Management).

Each speaker spoke about those areas that are tested in the exam and pointed out landmark texts, authors, aspects and offered reading lists. Rao talked about Indian writing in English and post-colonial theory and Mehta concluded the deliberations with his address on Commonwealth literature.

On the second day, Gokhale guided the students on how to answer questions on the unseen passage.