Though the Tamil Nadu government's Naan Mudhalvan Scheme (NMS) was announced amid much fanfare, college students and teachers are confused about how the scheme would play out in the upcoming semester examinations. A teaching faculty from a college affiliated with Madurai Kamaraj University said students would have to appear for exams under the scheme during the second, fourth and sixth undergraduate (UG) course semesters.
The Naan Mudhalvan Scheme was implemented to provide career-oriented and skill-based training to the students. "Under this scheme, the existing skill-based course hours had to be reduced from five hours to two hours per week. However, no clear instruction has been provided on whether there would be exams for the existing skill-based course or not. Under the scheme, A few papers were taught online and for others, outsiders came and taught the subject. But, we don't know about the syllabus earmarked for each paper," she said, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
"Commerce students already have a course on salesmanship skills, and now under the scheme, another course named Digital Employability has been introduced. Similarly, students in different courses have more papers to study under the Naan Mudhalvan Scheme. Making matters worse, we have not received clear information on the syllabus, valuation, internal marks and external marks of these new papers. Sufficient time was not given to the students and teachers to ease into the process. The scheme was implemented all of a sudden. So, whether this scheme will actually benefit the students needs to be seen," the teaching faculty added.
Students speak up on Naan Mudhalvan Scheme
Hari, a first-year college student, said he has to study a Cambridge English course online under the scheme. "We received a link via e-mail, but most of the students were not able to open the link. Also, we cannot clarify doubts if it is an online video class," he added, as per TNIE.
Responding to the issue, an official from Madurai Kamaraj University said clear instructions about the implementation of the scheme were provided last month. "Second-semester students have Cambridge English, fourth-semester students have Microsoft (digital skill) and sixth-semester students have Employability Readiness papers. Students have to submit assignments and internal marks will be awarded by their subject teachers. External evaluation will be conducted online. A few skill courses have already been removed. All these communications were sent to all principals of affiliated colleges. Those who are having doubts over the scheme can contact their college principal or coordinators of the Board of Studies," he said.
