Ludhiana: Educators rue PU decision to bifurcate functional English

As per NEP, functional English, which was offered as a vocational subject with three years course till now, has been bifurcated and would now be offered to the students for three semesters only

Educators in the district did not welcome the decision of the board of studies of Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, to bifurcate functional English into separate courses under skill enhancement, ability enhancement and value added course as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Disappointed with this bifurcation, another PCCTU member and a faculty member of functional English said, “Keeping it out of the main basket due to implementation of NEP is unfair and inaccurate. We have forwarded the request to either include the subject in the main basket or we should be allowed to be a part of the English department so that our workload does not get affected.” (Getty image)

As per NEP, functional English, which was offered as a vocational subject with three years course till now, has been bifurcated and would now be offered to the students for three semesters only.

Varun Goel, executive member of the Central Committee of Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU), said the merger of functional English with English language has been demanded by the teaching faculty.

“When the Punjab government created 1,925 grant-in-aid aid posts, institutions were instructed to fill 25% of them against vocational courses, then how can they bifurcate a whole subject and what about those teachers who were appointed against functional English, in case merger does not take place? This raises a direct question on the workload of such teachers and before implementing NEP, the government must initiate cadre review which was last done in 1981,” he informed.

Disappointed with this bifurcation, another PCCTU member and a faculty member of functional English said, “This subject was taken in high esteem and was extremely likeable by the students but changing its nomenclature and keeping it out of the main basket due to implementation of NEP is unfair and inaccurate. Our career is at stake and we have forwarded the request to either include the subject in the main basket or we should be allowed to be a part of the English department so that our workload does not get affected. It has also been proposed that the institutions where mass communication as a whole course is not available, must be permitted to offer functional English as a three-year course.”

Avtar Singh, principal of Guru Teg Bahadur College, Dakha, has already submitted a representation regarding offering the subject as an elective minor.

“As per the grant-in-aid aid scheme of the Punjab government on vocational education, four posts were allotted to each college against the vocational subjects, but this policy poses a question on their workload as these courses would be taught only thrice a week whereas the subject as whole was a full time course. We have submitted a representation to the vice-chancellor of Panjab University and the dean of the language department to consider these issues,” he said.

PU senator Jagwant Singh said, “The department has preferred to split the subject as they believe that the workload would decrease if functional English is still offered as a vocational subject. However, we have already proposed the PU to allow the teachers concerned to teach English as well. The decision on this is yet to be made.”