Ambedkar University designing happiness curriculum for judicial academies

Three weeks after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi proposed happiness classes for judicial academies, the Ambedkar University of Delhi (AUD) on Friday said it

Three weeks after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi proposed happiness classes for judicial academies, the Ambedkar University of Delhi (AUD) on Friday said it was designing the curriculum for judges.

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AUD vice-chancellor Anu Singh Lather said that the varsity was working towards developing two programmes — a six-month certificate programme and a one-year diploma — for those involved in the judiciary.

“We are working on the modalities right now and shall be imparting the training module form. The curriculum is being designed by borrowing from the themes of the government’s happiness curriculum. A lot of it involves experiential learning. We have to train our faculty members accordingly and the course could be ready in another six to eight months,” Lather said in a telephonic interview.

Lather also said the university would adopt the deshbhakti curriculum, which was announced last week by the Delhi government to ‘inculcate patriotism among students and to make them responsible citizens’. “Since the government is already designing it, we would like to introduce this in our undergraduate courses, since our courses our due for a major revision,” Lather added.

The announcements were made after the foundation stone laying ceremony of the state university’s Rohini and Dheerpur campus. The ceremony was attended by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, secretary (higher education) Sandeep Kumar, and other officials. The university currently has three campuses located in Kashmere Gate, Karampura, and Lodhi Road.

With large open-air theatres, a glass-library building, shaded courtyards, and sky gardens, the Dheerpur campus, spread over 50 acres, promises to offer state-of-the-art infrastructure for its various components. The university also stated that the adjoining Dheerpur wetland is being developed and maintained by the Centre For Urban Environment and Sustainability (CUES) of the AUD in partnership with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and its ecology would not be disturbed by the construction. The 18-acre Rohini campus will house seven schools, including Schools of Undergraduate Studies, Liberal Studies, Development Studies, and Law, Governance and Citizenship.

“Currently, the university’s capacity is 3,400 students. With the completion of these campuses, that number will increase to 8,000 within three or four years, which will help youngsters of Delhi avail quality education,” Kejriwal said. “When we came to power in Delhi, only 1.1 lakh seats were available in Delhi colleges. The number has now improved to 1.5 lakh.”

Talking about bridging the gap further, Kumar said, “Around 2.5 lakh students become eligible after graduating from Delhi’s schools every year. We must ensure that all children get equal opportunities.”

Emphasising on the need for “quality education” for a larger “quantity” of students, Sisodia said increasing the capacity of institutions was the order of the day. “The biggest problem in Delhi’s higher education is a British-era law called the Delhi University Act, passed in 1922. This Act made the Delhi University the only affiliating university in Delhi, and to date, we are suffering the consequences of that,” he said, explaining that the law should be changed since it was formulated for a different era, which saw fewer students.

“Though IP University was granted affiliating powers, that was a one-time amendment,” he said. “We have found a way out by opening constituent colleges of the existing universities. In the last five years, 16 new colleges and constituent colleges have been opened by the Delhi government.”