Four-Year Undergraduate Course in Delhi University Has Many Challenges: Lack of Faculty Members Is Just One of Them
Rituparna Patgiri | 25 July 2025 | The Indian Express
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 came up with many promises for India’s education system. As an educator, I was looking forward to certain systematic changes. I also gained first-hand experience of how the policy would be implemented in one of India’s premier public universities: The University of Delhi (DU). While working in an undergraduate college affiliated with DU, I was also involved in aspects of the NEP 2020, such as curriculum design. Revision of the curriculum was necessary as the NEP 2020 mandated a shift from a three-year to a four-year undergraduate (UG) degree programme.
However, the process of revising the syllabus crushed any hope of the needed reform. Teachers had very little time and had to juggle between teaching, evaluation, invigilation and administrative duties along with the syllabus revision work. It resulted in long online meetings after 7 pm. Many courses were simply rehashed instead. Teachers were also expected to introduce several new courses. Syllabus designing is a mammoth task and requires proper time and critical thinking. However, none of it was possible on such short notice. Nonetheless, the first batch of students under the NEP 2020 in DU was enrolled in 2022…