Mysuru: With the admission process of students to undergraduate colleges coming to a close and the classes set to begin from June 18, the University of Mysore has just given the green signal for implementation of the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and Continuous Assessment of Grading Pattern (CAGP) for undergraduate programmes from the academic year 2018-19.

However, the CBCS-CAGP system has created a lot of confusion among the colleges as the concerned college authorities are not prepared for the implementation.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, a few College Principals said that they had no clue how to prepare for the new system.

They argue that time is too short to implement the new system. “90 percent of the principals or the faculties are not even aware of CBCS-CAGP system and the undergraduate classes are beginning on June 18. How can the University expect us to implement it in a hurry,” questioned a principal on condition of anonymity.

Another Principal asked, “while as per the new system, the student assessment is based on internals, tutorial, lecture and will be ‘practical-oriented’ nobody knows the definition of tutorial, lecture and practical. If field work is prescribed for practical assessment, on what basis should the field work be assigned? If there are four core subjects, there will be internal assessment for all the four subjects. Will a lecturer give field work for all the four subjects? In that case, when will a student sit in a classroom.”

Another Lecturer noted that though the new CBCS-CAGP system is good and gives a lot of scope for intelligence and capacity, the colleges must be prepared to drive the same which might be difficult considering the shortage of lecturers and infrastructure.”

University clarifies

However, the University authorities said that the faculty will be adequately trained for the new system and a workshop (with separate sessions) has been organised today and tomorrow for faculties and heads of departments where all doubts will be clarified.

When questioned if training in such short notice was effective, the University authority informed that they were prepared months ago but could not conduct the training earlier because of Election Model Code of Conduct.

UGC directive

The University has implemented the new system based on the decisions taken by Academic Council meetings held last year and this year.

The University Grants Commission has come up with CBCS-CAGP programme wherein students have a choice to choose from the prescribed courses and they can learn at their own pace and the entire assessment is graded based on a credit system.

In the University of Mysore, the CBCS-CAGP system will apply to all the undergraduate programmes under Arts, Science and Commerce – BA, B.Sc., B.Com., BBA and BSW.