During the golden period of Spain Miquel de Cervantes (1556-1615) created a masterpiece of European literature,’ Don Quixote’, It was the story of a funny fictional character, who styled himself as a knight errant Don Quixote, and who had convinced himself that he was destined to vanquish all (imagined)evil enemies. In his hilarious adventures he is encouraged and egged on by his 'squire' Sancho Panza. This Don tilts against windmills because Panza had convinced him that they were giant evils. In this monumental epic both of them bring a lot of ridicule upon themselves with their amusing misadventures and crazy imagery.
The university community sees shades of Quixote-Panza combo in some of the recent acts of VC-Registrar duo. Any advice for sagacity, any demand for dialogue and debate, any criticism of violations of university statutes or of past established practices was seen as emanating from evil carnates; that is, DUTA or 'self appointed teacher activists'. Like Quixote, Deepak Pental threw his knightly lances at the evil spirits. He shot out 20 letters and orders to college principals and GBs. They were mostly treated with quiet contempt they deserved. Teachers were not deterred.
The similarity with the epic parody does not end here. This epic influenced European literature for the next 300 years. Pental has also ensured his place in future history. Many a management institutes will surely have in their curricula text book the case studies of ' "how not to run an organization" or "how not to introduce a reform ": a case study of semester introduction in DU”. Dr Deepak Pental not only failed as a vice chancellor but also as the CEO of DU he thought he actually was.
The purpose of this piece is not to repeat the often repeated arguments of multiple violations of lawfully laid down procedures by the VC. The purpose is to lament the loss of excellent opportunity to introduce innovations and interdisciplinary in curricula and teaching methods, make evaluation processes not a test of rote memory but of real knowledge, encouraging research and, above all, devising ways and means through which 'quality' could be introduced to mammoth the number of undergraduate students. Friends, if Dr Pental and the university community introspect, the failures are many and monumental. First is that teachers have been tarred with black brush as opposing any or all reform. The fact is that the teachers have been in the forefront of all positive changes in structures and syllabi in DU during the last few decades. Second is the impression created by Pental that he is under force introducing semester scheme at the behest of the union MHRD. That the university spent over Rs 90 lakhs of public money over huge ads in prominent news papers and over court cases, and yet failed every time and everywhere, has further confirmed this impression. Third, the 13 science courses in which the VC sought to implement an ill conceived half baked semester based syllabi cover only about 12%of students’ strength in the formal stream. Pental had always boasted that he would introduce semester in all the courses, in all the faculties-a boast which has fallen flat on its face. Even in sciences in over 75% cases teaching is being done in the annual scheme despite farcical claims by some subCEOs(read principals).The process of starting Pental's dream semester project has not yet even started in Arts, Humanities, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Commerce and Business departments which cover over 85% of the students. Also the semester based science courses, somehow assembled by the VC in a hurry, betray no evidence of interdisciplinarity or innovation. The two exams per year instead of one cannot in itself be a positive reform. The actual teaching days have been reduced so as to provide for two exams and preparatory holidays.
The incoming new administration of DU, it is hoped, will learn from these mistakes. An era of the much needed reforms will start with the active help of all concerned. The processes to consult, confer, discuss, debate, and, argue with permanent stake holders- students and teachers, and will yield positive results. The top down approach is bound to fail.
October 10, 2010
INDER KAPAHY
Dept.of Physics
KM College,DU.
9810037679
imkkmc@gmail.com
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