Life as a student in the North Campus at the end of the 1970s was made up of halycon days. The North Campus was the longest distance I had commuted to in the city in all of my life upto then. Nursery and then Primary School had been at a walking distance and Middle-school and Senior-school were always a short school bus ride away. The university that loomed in the distance was made accessible through public transport. For 12 rupees and fifty paisa, one could board any DTC bus, blue in colour, sometimes maroon, and travel from Western Extension Area to North Delhi and further. When we shifted home from Karol Bagh to Saket, there were university specials, buses in which mostly students and teachers going to the university travelled. These buses, dropped us off outside the gates of the coleges we studied in, allowing us to explore a whole new world.
There were sprawling grounds in individual colleges, and then an entire university campus one could wander over. From the back gate of college there was a scenic route to the the science block of the university and from there to the university coffee house where jelly and cream was a preferred delicacy, along with coffee and other odds and ends. There were in fact so many food haunts around the campus, ranging from the chow mein at the arts faculty dhaba and the aloo chat sold by a twinkling eyed man outside the arts faculty, who had ben selling aloo chat from quite some time. It was easy to saunter and attend lectures because they were illuminating and sit in on for talks that were informative. Sittiing in the college cafe and wolfing down flame-scorched buttered bread, or eating samosas and gulab jamun with nimbu paani at Rohtaas's stand and absorbing a brave new world of ideas. Discovering chane bhatoorae at KNags and books in shops in Kamla Nagar as KNags was expansively called. Nesting books on library shelves in an old world library where from a seat in an alcove, there was the possiblity of gazing at the green of the lawns outside the library window. Spic Macay and college festvals, theatre and social service leagues and literary societies and the occasional film at the film club, reaching home after long bus rides and drinking in all kinds of new thoughts and trying to accomodate them inside of one's head, exploring new spaces, such as Triveni and Mandi House, the National Gallery and the National Museum; getting off the U special to have chaat on Shahjahaan Road, these are some of the memories that the mind throws up.
What an amazing place the university was in those days, and how wonderful it was to have a long single academic year, that began after a hot summer, led us through the monsoons and then provided us with autumn and winter breaks, where one could savour the seasons, enjoy varied festivals in the short break in October and then nourish oneself in winter in the third week of December and into the New Year cozying up at home during the cold season. Back in the New Year to college in bracing weather that turned into spring and then taking our exams in almost hot April, while the university shut down for the summer for students and teachers. It was a space of leaning and safety , from which we emerged, ready to test our wings in the world. Yes, the university in myriad ways prepared us for the universe!
Five years of such learning; undergraduate and graduate, at the university and the overwhelming desire to continue to be a part of this life. So there I was, after yet another long summer, back to teach in another college across the road, engaging with undergraduates and tutoring MA students and being part of a community of teachers, young and middle aged, bonding over tea in the college staffroom, in between lectures, teaching various undergraduate classes, rushing out to join rallies or attend a talk, view an exhibition of art/pottery, watch a play, or just pick up a book or two at the library and browse. We tried out the local eateries in Knags. patronising special Chane Bhature that sold out everyday in under three hours.. the shopkeepers downed shutters until the next morning... and savoured the wonderful fruit beer at the corner as well as the snacks at Bercos..which underwent many new avataars from seedy to hip. As young teachers we were monarchs of all that we surveyed, full of energy and arguments as we began to articulate our discoveries in the subjects and areas that interested us while being trained through MPhil programs to focus on PhDs.
Almost a 150 years after William Wordsworth one could echo his sentiment and paraphrase it to declare that bliss was it to be alive during those years, when the joy of studying and teaching at the university was non-pareil. As teachers, even befor internal assessment was introduced the university had a system of tutorials, preceptorils and practicals that were valued additions to the academic life of a student. Teachers came in to correct answer sheets at examination centres, set up in different colleges, usually at the North Campus in the hot summer, and brought food from home which was pooled into an abundant lunch over which we exchanged notes and pointers about scripts that were to be corrected. Examination results were seldom delayed and evaluation was for the most part fair. Systems of re-evaluation were also in place. As teachers we also had a strong DUTA in place that worked to improve and ameliorate teacing and learnng spaces in the university. We were a much admired university at the turn of the century with varied disciplines committed to academic growth and research.
Where did these years go? I just don't know. DUTA has ben reduced to small rag tag groups that have been pulverised by the new systems that has been set in place. The place of the teacher as reprsentative has shunk in important bodies such as the Academic Council and the Executive Council. A hurriedly implemented semester system is firmly in place. Upon its body experiments on curriculum continue to be harnessed. First we truncated and bowdlerised the annual mode, next we expanded it to a four year program with silly ennervating syllabi that had to be rejected on public demand. Another Trojan Horse that was introduced in the midst of all this was NAAC. This trojan horse continues to consume all our energy as we try and get accreditation on paper by endless accumulation of data. Significantly, the powers that be have never engaged with the absurdity of the idea of accreditaion for a hundred year old public university. As we limped back to arranging a more suitable curriculum for the semester system (although that is a misrepresentation of the truth for the semester system is unsuitable as a method of teaching in itself) we were struck by COVID and subsequently pushed into online modes of highly unproductive teaching. Before we could recover and restore the university to its rhythms, CUET and the NEP were implemented in the university.
Were we caught off-guard as teachers? Was it the onslaught of unending semesters, or the death toll of the pandemic that ushered this new regimen in? We are now in some Americanised environs where mountains of data is collected on cyberpages on what seems to me to be a six-hourly basis. Endless hours are demanded of each teacher in compiling and uploading data which contributes zilch to the processes of teaching. So I keep asking myself..wasnt the university set up to teach? Five years from today there will be research papers documenting how data punching damages and depletes the human brain and corrodes creativity. Assembly line techniques work for objects, they are not meant for the human brain.
So how does this impede the learning process? Much has been said about the shrinking of the classroom space and the curriculum. Perhaps it is time to speak for the student meant to learn and grow holistically at the university. The students are run down and bleary-eyed, the air is thick with particulate matter. Hostel accomodation is meagre and PG digs are either expensive and unsustainable or shabby and unappealing.We are so busy watching the AQI that our water and food contaminants are yet to be highlighted.
In this toxic amosphere, each student has seven papers per semester from the first semester onwards. There are three core papes, one GE that is disguised as a core paper and courses such as VAC, SEC and EVS. which are offered as credit papers. While the core papers have diluted content, the marks have increased exponentially. If earlier 25 marks out of hundred was part of the internal assessment and attendance that colleges contributed to the score sheet, now numbers crunching has reached 70.
CA (continuous evaluation) is for 40 marks (35 marks for student performance and 5 marks for tutorial attendance) and IA( internal evaluation) is for 30 marks ( 24 marks for writen work and 6 marks for attendance). Each core paper is for 160 marks and all students attempt a three hour central exam for 90 marks. The CA and IA demand five pieces of writing from the sudent in each course. The non-core courses, supposedly less demanding, continue to put pressure on students, seking a steady handing over of endless assignments.
Whil a teacher may have to evaluate abour 500 essays of varying length per semester, each student has to write about seven essays in each of the courses he or she is offering. Most students have replaced the older cut and paste system with modern cheat technology and one can get written assignments from an entire class powered by ChatGPT answers. The modular semester program ensures that no course can ever spill into the next.This promotes silo learning from semester to semester, easily forgotten because there is very little time available even to teach the truncated courses that are on offer.
So three years of this..and then one more mysterious year later, our students will enter the brave new world of a one year Masters Program. Why have Masters Programs in various disciplines been compressd into a single year? Does this bode well for students when the core undergraduate syllabi has been greatly diluted? Why have MPhil courses been scrapped? The University continues to be in the throes of a learning and teaching pandemic. No inoculation is in place. Nor have any systems been generated to nurture the best pedagogic practices that the university had in place, once. Students are packed into lecture, tutorial and practical rooms by the gross. Neither the sub-par curriculum nor the dinacharya of the overburdened student or the clericalised university teacher compiling data, is likely to be reviewed at any point.
We have already celebrated 100 years of Delh University. It is now in free fall, disintegrating into small bits. The telescope that can track and record the fall and disintegration of humungous bodies such as a central university has yet to be invented. If we cannot change this, maybe it is time to gather around and mourn.
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A perfect picture in 'Words' about a once perfect University. Sadly, we bask on previous glory. It is time that we accept the Downfall in standards ! Irredeemable damage !
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