Courses such as B.A degree in Psychology or Philosophy may not be the best for a job, when so many B.Com and B.Tech graduates abound- this line of thinking has increasingly taken of students as they observe trends and choices made by seniors and friends around them.
While experts criticizes this trend, college managements say the money from the government is not enough to run these courses. But, when colleges start following this logic and scrap traditional courses, it becomes a matter of concern. Three professors in Tiruchi went on an indefinite hunger strike last week in order to protest the National College Management's decision to scrap post-graduate Philosophy courses.
Finally, the management had refused to admit applicants and removed the details of the course from its prospectus. The Joint Council of College Teacher's Association blamed the move, which apparently was due to lack of applicants. The M.A Philosophy programme is completely State-supported, and the salaries of teachers are borne by the government.
A member of the council and head, M.Ravichandran, department of English, Dr.Ambedkar Government Arts College said "It is not true that there are no applicants. There are nine students willing to take up the course". Philosophy, Psychology, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and History are some the courses which have been affected till now.
"Minority Language departments in certain colleges have disappeared because of this practice. Managements feel it is better to use the infrastructure for their Self-financing ones", added M.Ravichandran. However, College Managements say, the money obtained from the government is hardly sufficient to run government-aided courses, which is why many need to be restarted again with better facilities.
One of the principal of Government aided college in North-Chennai says that "For instance, we spend nearly Rs.8,000 per semester on chemicals alone, while the government gives just Rs.2000. There is no way we can maintain and run a chemistry department with that much".
What do you think about Traditional courses. Does it have any importance left within students? Or slowing down importance of these courses is a sign of its slow death in education field? What say?