The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had decided to conduct an annual refresher training programme in online mode for teachers of all educational institutions. For the same, the¬†University Grants Commission (UGC) sent letters to all universities, asking them to send a list of courses selected by their teachers. However, this has received criticism from teachers of Delhi University. The ministry believes that the teachers, irrespective of their seniority, will be able to cope up with “modern day challenges”.
What the letter stated
UGC directed the universities to send a list of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) which they selected, after getting approval from their statutory bodies. The list of courses is available on MHRD’s SWAYAM portal (link at the end).
About the programme
This programme is available on SWAYAM portal of MHRD. The training is completely online with modules prepared by 75 (selected) National Resource Centres in different disciplines. Delhi University has a resource center for Chemistry. The course will start from October 1 onwards and it will be repeated in January next year.
The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants –
- video lectures
- specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed
- self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes
- an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts
Teachers’ criticism¬†
Teachers have highly opposed this order. They believe that this course will not benefit them in any way. A professor at the university told a national newspaper, “Online courses will not be able to make much difference in the pedagogy of the educational institutions. We need to understand we don’t even have resources to conduct such courses at the institutions”.
A few teachers claimed that¬†the commission is trying to make the university’s statutory bodies “redundant” by passing these orders. “The commission had asked the universities to make their statutory bodies to approve such courses. What will be the autonomy of these bodies then?” a member of the University’s¬†Academic Council was quoted as saying.
Link to SWAYAM Portal: https://swayam.gov.in/
