Press Note Don’t weaken our Goan Graduates by Scraping RTI Syllabus: GOA RTI FORUM In the revised syllabus of Business Communication II paper (Business and Public Communication) of Semester IV of the B Com Program to be implemented from November 2014 Goa University has introduced a module on Right to Information(RTI). One of the primary objectives of the RTI module was to make students aware of their constitutional rights. In addition to giving the students theoretical knowledge about the concepts in RTI the students were expected to get hands on experience with RTI as part of the course. Students were to work in groups of five and file an RTI application on any issue of public importance. Under the guidance of the teacher the students were expected to do the necessary follow up of the RTI application and publicize their findings in appropriate forums. Goa RTI forum was delighted to see the syllabus and the practical manner in which it was proposed to be executed. Making the students actually file a RTI applications and taking them through the follow up steps would make them aware of their rights and give them an insight into the responsibilities of a public organization and its employees towards the citizens of the country. In addition several practical aspects of communication would also be learnt by them in the process. But the forum has come to know from reliable sources that now the University is planning to dilute the course on RTI in response to complaints from some college Principals regarding the implementation of the syllabus. A special meeting has been convened on August 9th to take a decision on the matter. RTI forum would like to make a representation to the University in this regards. We at the forum feel that the objections raised in the complaint letters are trivial and are in no way an appropriate justification to redesign the course module. If the course gets diluted from its existing structure the students will be deprived of a significant real life learning experience which would have helped them greatly in becoming more informed citizens. We would like to highlight the triviality of the objections raised against the syllabus on a point by point basis. Objection No 1 - RTI application has to be answered in 30 days and if the RTI application is not answered an appeal has to be filed after that. In 60 days 80% of the term is over. As marks allotted to the subject are 45 mark, if RTI application does not work out the child will lose those marks. This issue can be taken care of in a very practical manner. First and foremost a time-frame may be set up by which a groups RTI file may be submitted to the teacher. At the stage of vetting by the teacher, a good number of the RTIs which do not satisfy the criteria for a good RTI such as a) asking one to the wrong public authority; b) asking information which may constitute contempt of court; c) asking information of a personal nature not related to public activity; asking etc (See Chap II Sec. 8, 9 of RTI Act) would be eliminated. Secondly one can expect that at least 50% of the RTI applications will be answered by the concerned department/body. In the remaining cases wherein an appeal needs to be made a time frame can be set up such that work done within that time frame could be considered in totality to decide the marks to be allocated to the student. Even if the RTI application has not reached its logical conclusion within that given time frame it should not be considered as incomplete work as the completion factors are beyond the purview of the student. Additional work put in by the students in going for the appeal can be considered while assigning marks. Objection No 2 – Presuming that there are 3500 students of SY Bcom of which around 1000 students may have opted for business environment it would mean that there are 2500 RTI questions in various government departments. With 1000 of 3500 SYBcom students opting in for the subject and students working in groups of 5 hardly 200 odd applications will be made. Even if one assumes that an RTI has to be filed by an individual, surely one student in the group will file the RTI on behalf of all. From where has the magic figure of 2500 been arrived at seems to be a mystery. Objection 3 - Would lead to a situation if the answer to the RTI application is not received the student will lose marks. This is not the case as the marks will be allotted for the process that the student goes through. Marks can be allotted in a structured way. 70 % of marks can be allotted to the student upto the vetting stage by teacher. The remaining 30 % marks will be reserved for the process of appeal and further appeal etc. If the student cannot complete this the teacher will judge the RTI appeal on its merit. Those students whose RTIs are rejected at the vetting stage can still earn marks by assisting those whose RTIs are accepted to move ahead. Objection No 4 - Students RTI applications will be directed towards educational institutions, government departments or maybe Goa University leading to extra work. With crores spent on E-governance by the Goa Government and equally large amount of money being spent on computerization by University and other educational institutions it is imperative that they should have most information in electronic form. So, it should be just a matter of a few clicks to retrieve information (more specifically the information that is expected to be in public domain) from the department’s database and give it to the students. Obstacles will come in this process if and only if the transactions in question are not performed in a transparent manner. If transactions are transparent then they can be immediately transferred onto the Public Authoritys website. (In that case the purpose of filing an RTI application will be all the more served as it will help to remove bottlenecks in delivering information currently experienced. Objection No 5 - Syllabus Designed to provide comfort zone to the teachers teaching the course. This is a barely veiled insult to the teachers. As a matter of fact the work of the teacher will be increased. Personally handling 12 RTI Projects in a class of 60 students is much more difficult than delivering a well worn lecture for the same period. Workload issues are a minor administrative issue and can be handled by assigning appropriate workload weightage (lesser if the need be) to the said 30 hours allocated to the course with reference to teacher workload. Objection 6 - Will lead to a situation where five times in a week the students of each division would be outside the classroom at any given point of time. The subject teacher should be given the responsibility of ensuring that the student’s time is put to fruitful use. In addition it should also be noted that the syllabus states that students can be outside the classroom if need be – it is not an essential requirement. If required the students can be kept in the classroom too although this will create problems for the teacher and the students. Objection 7 - Would lead to some technical rules and Ordinances being required to be changed. If rules have to be changed then so be it. There are precedents of Ordinances being changed in order to meet changing times and the need of particular papers. In fact trying to remove a Paper which has already been passed unanimously by various bodies of the University from Board of Studies to Executive Council is itself breaking the rules. Question raised in the complaint - Are Educational institutes equipped to deal with student activism? It may be that activism has earned negative connotations today but activism is just a synonym for being model proactive citizens who work selflessly for the general good of society. Student activism in Goa has a glorious history and has brought to forefront and even taken to logical conclusion many significant issues related to student community in Goa and Goans in general. If the educational institutes are not yet equipped to deal with productive student activism it is high time they start working towards it. By empowering the students with practical knowledge of tools to exercise their rights and giving them an insight into what would be their responsibilities and duties towards the public when they take up jobs in various institutions the course if implemented in the right letter and spirit would do a yeomen service to the state for years to come. And therefore the course should be implemented in its present form and structure from November 2014 as proposed earlier. We appeal to (BOS) Board of Studies and Goa University Don’t weaken our future let students be real Graduate and informed citizenry Ganpat Kurtiker Secretary
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:53:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015