JOIN USNEP and social science studies
The Karnataka government has embarked on implementing the New Education Policy 2020 in a mission mode from the academic year 2021-22. This will kick off with four years’ UG programme, one year PG course and with certificate and diploma courses, the provision for exit and re-entry options, and credit transfer facilities. However, these are without adequate preparations. My focus here is on the initiatives to be taken urgently to revive social sciences, the demand for which seems to be going down.
Social sciences comprise disciplines like Sociology and Anthropology, Political Science, Economics and History. For academic and professional convenience, they are taught as independent disciplines. This leads to imparting fragmented knowledge to students which results in limited learning, not enough in terms of either knowledge acquisition or the required skills to be employable.
Hence, to supplement their capabilities, add-on courses along with an emphasis on learning new skills are to be compulsorily offered to help students become employable. For example, if students of Political Science take up a couple of add-on courses like a Diploma in Management of Enterprises, Media Studies, Social Anthropology etc, it helps them to successfully compete for jobs. Likewise, a course on Indian Society would be helpful to students desiring to work in non-governmental organisations (NGOs,) where it will be value addition.
Students of History enrolling for an add-on course on Indian Politics and Geography will benefit if they aspire for jobs in the tourism industry. Students of Economics doing one or two add-on courses in International Political Economy, Indian Political Institutions and Foreign Trade Policy will be successful in jobs in public and private international organisations and business journalism. Students of Journalism will benefit by taking a course on Voting Behaviour Studies to effectively cover elections.
Social Work is an important discipline falling in the category of social sciences which has theoretical and practical aspects. Students of social sciences should be compulsorily made to opt for an add-course in Social Work as it enables them to take up jobs in the NGO sector and the society at large.
While introducing the four- years programmes this academic year, the government seems to have given very little time to the Boards of Studies for designing the curriculum. An omnibus committee was created, headed by the vice-chancellor of a university, with representative faculty from universities and colleges to draft the curriculum for the first year. As revealed by some senior teachers, the task has been completed in a hurry by dividing the existing syllabus into two, spreading them over two semesters.
In this regard, a controversial circular issued by the State Council for Higher Education to the vice-chancellors ‘to keep the syllabus more or less same’, has rightly attracted criticism by some teachers as an infringement of their academic autonomy. Such actions run counter to the spirit of NEP 2020 which talks of institutions retaining the freedom to design courses and their contents.
Holistic learning
There is an urgent need to promote inter-disciplinary culture in our institutions of higher learning. Initiatives are needed to promote holistic learning to enable students to connect with the global higher education ecosystem. Cross-disciplinary Courses are essential to ensure academic mobility among faculty and students. Students studying in state-owned colleges should have the opportunity to take courses in private institutions.
Such courses are already offered by some private institutions, which, however, may not be willing to allow students from government colleges to take courses in their colleges. To get over the possible hurdles, some form of government regulation may be necessary to rein in the managers of higher education in the private sector.
Under the rubric of inter-disciplinary teaching, faculty members, including senior teachers, need to undergo orientation programmes and refresher courses to equip themselves adequately to be effective transmitters of knowledge. Blended teaching involving a combination of online and offline modes, coupled with a case study and project-based teaching-learning should be insisted upon across the state. Discouraging rote learning should be the top priority.
Universities in Karnataka have introduced Open Electives under the choice-based credit system, (CBCS) at the post-graduate level. The same, along with credit transfer facilities, needs to be introduced in colleges. Under the open electives system, papers like Climate Change, Environmental Protection, Disaster Management, Data Protection and Privacy can be offered to help the students to be familiar with the contemporary challenges facing society.
The Karnataka State Higher Education Council may set up a committee under the chairmanship of an experienced recognised social scientist to assess the level of preparedness of institutions teaching social sciences in the state. The committee’s recommendations can serve as a guide to reviving social sciences in Karnataka.
(The writer is former Professor of Political Science and former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Bangalore University)
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