Keeping in mind the academic loss caused due to COVID-19, National Students' Union of India (NSUI) Mumbai Vice-President Faisal Shaikh has written to the Director of Higher Education, Maharashtra State, Dr Dhanraj Mane, requesting for the introduction of bridge courses in Maharashtra universities. Bridge courses refer to courses that can be used for revising the concepts and lectures taught during the COVID-19 period, when classes continued online.
Faisal, in the letter, stated that such courses will definitely aid the students to understand the covered concepts and topics in a better way and help to bridge the learning gap.
“Due to outbreak of COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown, the academic lectures in the last two years were conducted in the online mode. This resulted in loss of learning and piling up of unclear concepts for the students,” Faisal wrote in the letter dated May 25.
The concept of bridge courses comes from courses designed by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Maharashtra, for overcoming the shortcomings in learning brought forth by the pandemic in school education. The SCERT designed these courses for Classes II-X.
Faisal cites this as an example and wants similar courses to be designed for universities as well, and he states that they should be made compulsory. “I would request that for the academic year 2022-23, bridge courses should be made mandatory across all universities in Maharashtra,” a statement made in the letter to Dr Dhanraj reads.
Additionally, Faisal has asked that with the expertise of the faculty, the concepts that would help to understand forthcoming topics and lectures should be made clear for the students. This, he said, would help in adaptation to the pressure of offline courses and in comprehension of basic concepts.
A copy of the letter has also been sent to Uday Samant, Minister of Higher and Technical Education, Maharashtra. Faisal stated that he is scheduled to meet the Director of Higher Education in Pune to discuss this proposal, along with other issues, on Friday, May 27.
