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| Edited By: Prashant Thakor |Source: DNA |Updated: Feb 06, 2011, 03:35 PM IST
Gujarat Technological University is gearing up for a complete overhaul of their diploma courses. To initiate changes in the education system of these courses, principals of 86 polytechnic colleges from all over Gujarat were invited by the GTU to discuss the issue.
According to the GTU vice-chancellor Dr.Akshai Aggarwal, the meeting was aimed at bringing a paradigm shift in the way lecturers teach in the class room.
"We want to gradually eradicate exam oriented teaching and studying approach," said Dr.Aggarwal, who is determined to implement this system from August. "We have to re-define the role of colleges in this information age. We want to initiate interaction among students and teachers through this new system," the V-C opined.
Giving further details about the future road map for diploma studies, Dr. Aggarwal also made it mandatory for all the colleges to teach for at least 90 days. "We have made it clear that teaching sessions must take place for 90 days in a semester, which is also mandatory as per the UGC guidelines," said the V-C, who feels that only 60 to 70 days of actual teaching is happening today. This new instruction will be in place from the first semester which will start from after new admissions in August. GTU is also planning to introduce a monthly report system to keep track of academic sessions in each of their diploma colleges.
GTU has also proposed some drastic changes in the way teachers teach at the diploma colleges. According to the new guidelines, 'case study method' will be implemented in all the diploma colleges. According to Dr.Aggarwal, this will help overcome the exam oriented 'mugging up' approach of studying. "If teachers have to just pass on information, we don't need colleges. Instead, we want teachers to initiate interaction and discussion among students" said Dr Aggarwal.
To implement these changes, GTU has already started giving training to the lecturers of polytechnic colleges. Recently, almost 130 diploma teachers were trained by seven experts.
