MADURAI: The prestigious American College in Madurai seems to be facing some basic doubts and confusion of which syllabus to follow right now for its students- whether as per the recommended syllabus by the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) or follow the syllabus that was decided by the college faculty through Board of Studies as per autonomous status.
This confusion has come for college faculty after an urgent meeting of staff and Senatus was convened by the American College management on 3rd July 2023 through a zoom meeting. According to higher education sources, the Principal and Secretary of American College Dr.M.Davamani Christober is now in Australia and he had urgently conveyed to the faculty to follow “pre-TANSCHE syllabus” immediately for all courses for first year students and also appealed to the faculty to draw temporary timetable for classes for 2023 batch, and conduct bridge courses till 11th July 2023.
“There is a syllabus confusion in American College right now. Last month, we had a meeting of our college faculty and Board of Studies etc where we were told that we must follow the TANSCHE formulated-prescribed-suggested syllabus for our students. Now suddenly, we receive a message saying that we should revert back to old syllabus for our courses. We were told that we should not follow TANSCHE prescribed syllabus. Already, the classes for our students had started three weeks back and what we should do now? Why our Principal had changed the syllabus stand while he is in Australia,” a few senior staff of American College, have questioned today- on July 5th 2023.
“As we have not received any information from the Madurai Kamaraj University regarding TANSCHE syllabus. we will decide whether to continue with TANSCHE or go for the 2020 syllabus in due course of time,” according to a communication sent to teaching staff by Dr.A.Martin David, Principal in-charge, American College, on 4th July 2023, after the discussion with faculty the previous day about the syllabus to be followed for students.
The American College staff are now questioning whether the Principal will protect the autonomous status of the college in framing of syllabus or whether the faculty will be kept in confusion even after the college had started classes for this academic year 2023-24.
“Last month, our Principal Dr.Davamani Christober had accepted the TANSCHE common syllabus framework for 2023-24. Now, he says we must revert back to our old syllabus. The Principal returns only after one week, and what we should do in our classes from tomorrow?,” a senior faculty member of American College in Madurai had asked.
