Hyderabad: The Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) for undergraduate courses BSc, BCom and BA, which is set to be implemented from the coming academic year, demands more hard work from students without much returns.
The number of credits a student has to earn as per the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) CBCS design is much higher for each UG course than what is suggested by the University Grants Commission (UGC). For example, as per UGC, a student has to earn 148 credits for getting an Honours UG degree and 132 credits for a UG degree without honours. However, as per TSCHE's design, a student has to earn 180 credits for B.Com and 192 credits for B.Com honours.
For BSc and BA, TSCHE has provided no scope for honours courses. Telangana students will also be burdened as they will have to study for 20 credits each of Modern Indian Language (MIL) and English in a UG course thanks to TSCHE whereas UGC suggests just 12 credits each for MIL and English.
A major fall-back of CBCS as designed by TSCHE is that it has removed two key components of the CBCS structure as designed by UGC, Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC) and Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC).
“The gamut of SEC and AECC courses had been suggested by UGC for all UG courses with an aim to arm the students with some job-oriented skills so that their career prospects were enhanced. These courses can be chosen based on individual job requirements in each state. It is shocking that TSCHE has decided to remove it completely” said Prof. Battu Satyanarayana, senior faculty member at Osmania University and president of OU Teachers’ Association.
An example is 12 SECs have been suggested for B.Sc Chemistry by UGC. These included courses like IT skills for chemists, fuel chemistry, intellectual property rights and basic analytical chemistry. Students of Telangana will not be able to take up these enhancement avenues.
