Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 13:

Academicians today discussed the concept of integrated curriculum for the Proficiency Certificate Level of the Tribhuvan University (TU) and the 10+2 of the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB), at a workshop held here today.

Professor Dr Mahendra Singh, the coordinator of a task force formed to formulate an integrated curriculum for the undergraduate courses of the HSEB and the TU today said that the introduction of integrated curriculum is a timely move.

“There will be uniformity in the higher education and also between higher education institutions in the remote and urban areas after the implementation of integrated curriculum for the undergraduate level,” he said addressing a workshop on ‘the concept of integrated curriculum for PCL and HSEB’ organised by the Tribhuvan University Teachers’ Association (TUTA).

Integrated curriculum would make it easier to achieve the national goals from the integrated curriculum and that it would help check the student who wanted to pursue their higher education abroad due to the age old curriculum in TU and would end the confusion of acquiring different academic certificate from the same country.

“There is a complication to physically phase-out PCL form the TU and hence government is planning for academic phase-out.”

Maheshwor Upadhyaya, representative of TUTA said that the integrated curriculum should be made with the enough discussion or it would be counterproductive.

Professor Dr Yagya Raj Pant of TU central campus said that it is a need of the time to upgrade the existing curriculum.

“Reality based local needs in higher education of the country should be identified and included in the integrated curriculum,” Pant said adding, “curriculum integration is not just an issue but necessity of time.”

Professor Keshabananda Giri, former president of Nepal University Teachers Association said that there had been no revision of PCL curriculum of the TU since 1981 while higher secondary level curriculum is being revised on a regular basis which leads to the probability of displacing the PCL curriculum while formulating integrated curriculum.

“There is a need of a strong body to evaluate the curriculum integration,” said Giri.

The Education Ministry has formed a four member task force committee under co-ordination of Professor Dr Mahendra Singh with the representation of Education Ministry, HSEB and University Grant Commission in May 2004.