The Joint Action Committee comprising university faculty and government college teachers have decided to protest the Higher Education Department’s move to introduce common syllabi for all universities in the State.
As a first step on Monday, the various teachers’ associations demonstrated outside colleges and universities demanding that universities be given the autonomy to frame syllabi.
Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy said a few months ago that all colleges must follow a uniform syllabus. He said all arts and science colleges, irrespective of the university they were affiliated to, would follow the same syllabus.
Last week, while announcing the revised counselling schedule of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission, he pointed out that since all students studied the same language and since there could hardly be variations in science subjects, colleges should follow the same syllabus.
The department has allowed colleges to modify 25% of the syllabus as per the requirement of the region the university is based.
Teachers, however, are upset that the revised syllabi was outdated. Also, they were not consulted while drafting the syllabi, they claimed.
Consequently, on Monday, members from the Association of University Teachers, MUTA and Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers’ Association and the Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Theresa and Alagappa University Teachers Association have decided to protest the Higher Education Department’s move.
The JAC said following a call from the Tamil Nadu State Higher Education Council it had met the council members on July 12. “The committee had expressed concern that the common syllabi could spell doom for higher education in the State as it would take away the autonomy of the university. The subjects are below par in quality,” it had said.
Based on their interaction the JAC issued a statement on July 14 but it found that opposite views were given to the media by the Higher Education Department. The aggrieved members decided to protest until the common syllabi is withdrawn.
The JAC plans to launch a signature campaign in this regard. On July 21, it plans to stage protests outside universities.
