Kerala sets in motion process to introduce four-year degree courses

R Bindu | Video Grab: Manorama News
R Bindu. Photo: File Image

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Curriculum Committee for Higher Education is now considering the major proposals to overhaul the under-graduate progamme in the country as envisaged by the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. As per the draft ‘curriculum and credit framework', students joining the new four-year undergraduate programmes can appear for examinations in the third year and exit after obtaining graduation. And they can graduate with honours upon completing the four years of the programme.

The present system of three-year courses will be done away with, according to the draft proposal. The four-year degree course will be introduced following the new pattern suggested by the University Grants Commission (UG) in line with the NEP.

Those obtaining honours need to study post-graduate (PG) courses only for one year. They will get admission to the second-year PG through lateral entry.

Projects will be given more focus in the four-year courses. Additional focus so far given to language subjects will be discontinued; instead, importance will be given to the main subjects.

Other major proposals

The degree students pursuing the Science stream can study other subjects under the new programme. Similarly, an Art student can study Technology subjects if he is interested in the same.

First meeting

The Kerala State Curriculum Committee for Higher Education held its first meeting on Tuesday when the new curriculum framework draft for the four-year degree programme to be implemented from the next academic year came up for approval. The Committee members will be given a week’s time to convey their expert opinions.

The new curriculum framework will be finalized based on the opinions registered by the Committee members who will again meet after a week. The same will be sent to universities by the end of this month. The syllabi to be included in the new curriculum will be decided by the Board of Studies of the respective universities.

During the meeting, Higher Education Minister R Bindu stressed the need to adopt a student-centric learning approach while preparing the curriculum.

The meeting was attended by 28 scholars from across the country. Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) vice chairperson Dr Rajan Gurukkal, Curriculum Committee chairman Dr Suresh Das, KSHEC member secretary Dr Rajan Varghese, Dr Gangan Pratap, Dr M S Rajashree, Dr Meena T Pillai, Dr Amber Habeeb, Dr K G Gopchandran, Dr Nandakumar Kalarikkal, Dr A Santosh, Dr A Praveen, Dr C Padmanabhan, Dr Gabriel Simon Thattil, Dr Aldrin Antony and others attended the discussions.

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