DU: FYUP Neither Qualitative nor Job Promising, say 70% Students in Latest Survey

New Delhi: Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), with multiple entry and exit options, is losing the support of students on the quality and job promise parameters. The latest survey conducted among students by the All India Students Association (AISA) revealed that 78% of participants maintained that they did not get the expected quality education during the first two semesters. Similarly, 82% of participant students maintained that certificates and diplomas offered in the newly introduced programme are not job promising.

In a public meeting organised at Delhi University’s Faculty of Arts, the students and teachers maintained that the concerns they expressed before the programme's commencement are a haunting experience now.

Satyam Shahi, a student of B.A (Hons.) Geography in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College said that the new programme is expensive and diluted on core subjects.

Talking to NewsClick on the sidelines of the meeting, he said, “I hail from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, and my father, despite being a government teacher, is hardly managing the expenses of my sister and me. When I submitted my form, the fee for the first year was Rs 7000. However, it was later revised to Rs 12,000. My seniors told me there would be three core subjects and one elective, whereas there are seven subjects, including Swachh Bharat, for which I must write meaningless assignments continuously.”

He added, “I expected a higher quality of education at Delhi University. I could have got this quality at Allahabad University or Banaras Hindu University.”

Tanvi, who came from Indraprastha College, said she had enrolled in a self-financed course BA (Hons.) A Multimedia and Mass Communication course would mean that her family would have to shell out Rs 4.5 lakh for the four-year programme. However, much of the course content is obsolete and would not strengthen her credentials for a job in a competitive market.

She said, “Why are they forcing me to write letters in Hindi and assignments in Environmental Sciences, which I already did in school? Why must I write essays on pollution, its kinds and harms? Even teachers are finding it baffling to teach students such content.”

She added, “I wanted time to enrol myself in internships to get some industry exposure, but where is the time when you have seven subjects to study.”

Abhigyan Gandhi, Secretary, AISA Delhi, told NewsClick that the students were under the impression that there would be a new experience and they may gain much. “However, with two semesters gone, FYUP with multiple entry and exit points is a clear disaster, and we will fight to undo it. The students also fought it earlier, and we are gearing up for the next fight, too,” he said.

Addressing the meeting, Jitendra Meena, Assistant Professor of History at Shyam Lal College, said that the sweeping changes in the university are also taking a toll on teachers.

He said, “I teach Modern History, and new structure wants me to teach the history of modern Europe in three lectures per week. It’s simply not possible. The syllabus of the courses is shoved down our throats. There were objections to teaching Ambedkar and Allama Iqbal in Philosophy, Marx and other economic philosophers in Economics. VC  Yogesh Singh is misusing his powers in crushing our dissent.”

He added, “A classroom was a diverse place where students from different castes and religions learned from each other. We have data that more than 19,000 students dropped from central universities, IIM and IITs in the last five years. It’s an admission by this government in April this year in Rajya Sabha. These students could have seen the world. But they do not want us on campuses. So that they can urinate on Adivasis with impunity, as we saw in Madhya Pradesh last night.”

Vijender Chauhan, a noted Hindi teacher from Zakir Hussain College, said there had been very few opportunities for marginalised communities for upward mobility in our democracy, and education was a key element. Now, it is being snatched.

“I must say that students did a commendable job assessing the programme through rigorous exercise. The university should have done such an exercise. The university has made Hindi and Sanskrit mandatory as general elective subjects. I am suddenly finding so many students in class. However, it’s a tragedy that nobody is interested in learning the subject because they did not choose it,” Chauhan said.

He added, “Why are not governments understanding that negative policies affect different groups differently and the marginalised communities are unfortunately at the receiving end.”

Nandita Narain, Former President of the Delhi University Teachers Association, said that the university should have acted once it was clear that 33% of girls were less this time on campus in comparison with the previous year's numbers. “CUET and FYUP are a double whammy and should be resisted. We saw a new coaching industry taking shape in front of our eyes, focused solely on CUET. Now, who will go to these coaching institutions? The moneyed people and rest would be losers as cheap labour for the market.”