‘Class’ act needed to recover lost time

Just a month after the degree lectures started, college and university teachers went on strike. The issue is yet to be resolved. Chief minister Ashok Chavan will meet the teachers on Thursday

Admissions to junior college level first came up against the 90:10 hurdle. The chaotic online admission process delayed things further. Then came swine flu, forcing the state government to order closure of educational institutions to check the spread of the disease.

All this has left the current academic session in complete disarray. So much time has been lost that colleges and university departments will have to draw up fresh plans, and teachers will have to put in extra hours to salvage the situation. “The biggest challenge for senior colleges will be to complete the first term portion and find ways to go ahead with terminal exams,” said Kirti Narain, principal, Jai Hind College.

“We started degree lectures around June 15, and the strike began on July 14. Under normal circumstances, our terminal exams would have started around September 20. As it takes a month to complete degree and junior college exams, it is unlikely that there will be time to get over with them before the Diwali break starting around October 16. We might have just three to four days’ holiday instead of the usual 21,” said Narain.

Sathaye College principal KS Rege said that his college had planned to start terminal exams by September 25. It may now have to postpone them until after the curtailed Diwali break. Colleges said that the teachers were ready to forego weekends and vacations to complete assignments. Once the strike gets over, every college will redraft timetables to make up for the lost time.

Neeraj Hatekar, professor in Economics department of Mumbai University, said that for Masters courses, around three weeks of teaching would be lost. “For science courses, there are practicals, which require presence of non-teaching staff. They may not want to come during the Diwali break. Hence, rescheduling will have to be done or they will have to be paid overtime,” he said.

While many university departments follow the annual system, there are others following the credit-based semester system. It requires 12 weeks of teaching every semester. Due to the strike, one-third of the first semester is lost.

BV Bhosale, faculty in Sociology department of Mumbai University, agreed that there would be increased pressure on students. “We will try and ensure that academic justice is done to students. We have started giving them summary of courses. We are also supplying supplementary reading material,” he said. 

University registrar K Venkatramani said that measures to compensate for loss of teaching hours would be discussed at the academic council meeting.

International schools give lessons on Net
International schools in the city will not suffer much owing to the short swine flu break, as their session started early this month or in the last week of July. Also, most of these schools have uploaded assignments on their websites. Some are emailing worksheets to students.

Dhirubhai Ambani International School has dispatched assignments to students via email. Students of some classes have been told that this Saturday will be a working day.
Podar International School, Santa Cruz, has uploaded assignments on its website. Principal Vandana Lulla said, “We are evaluating the students online. In case we still fall short of time, we will have extra lectures.

The school has conducted a survey asking parents  whether they wished to send their wards to school from August 20. Of 359 parents, 251 wanted the classes to resume. Lulla said, “I was surprised by the response. They were even against cancellations of terms end exams.”

It’ll be easier for junior colleges
The junior colleges will reopen on August 20. Principals are awaiting guidelines from the government on working weekends and classes during the Diwali vacation.

“We have lost more than 20 working days. The govt decision of scrapping the unit test came as a relief, but we might have to work on Sundays, and curtail Diwali vacation,” said TA Shiware, principal of KPB Hinduja College, Charni Road. However, consent from teachers’ union would be needed to decide, he added.

The situation for junior colleges is not as grave as degree colleges. Kirti Narain, principal of Jaihind College, Churchgate, said, “We will have to schedule extra classes to cover the portion. However, it will be more tough for degree colleges.”

City tutorials have already covered most of the Std XII syllabus. “We have finished most of the syllabus. We were well prepared as we were anticipating the closure order,” said Sudhanshu Sinhal, director of Sinhal Classes.

With inputs from Yogita Rao and Priya Ramakrishnan