UPRTOU to scrutinise, update study materials after plaints of errors

PRAYAGRAJ : Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU) has decided to scrutinise and update all study materials of courses being run by it. Prof Seema Singh, the new vice-chancellor of this UP’s lone open university, has issued a circular to all ‘schools of education’ under the university, instructing them to recheck the course material being given to students and see if any wrong or outdated information is in them.

The initiative VC comes in the wake of claims that the content of study materials was not being updated for a number of years. One report pointed out that one such course material mentioned that former prime minister Indira Gandhi (19171984) was assassinated 20 years ago, whereas it has now been 37 years since she was assassinated. Likewise, the information regarding annual themes of SAARC too has not been updated since 2005.

“I have asked the faculty members and officials of all ‘schools of education’ to recheck the self-learning material (SLM) of all courses and see to it that none of the book or the SLMs have any mistake in terms of giving right information to students. The books should be updated and the course material be revamped from time to time,” said Prof Singh.

Meanwhile, the relevance and importance of the study material published by UPRTOU is now also set to be enhanced among the academic fraternity. By persistent efforts of the new vice chancellor, the university has been allotted international standard book number (ISBN) number for its course materials.

The process of getting ISBN issued by Raja Rammohun Roy National Agency had been pending for years in the university. “However, UPRTOU has now been registered as a publisher and all the books that will be published by the university now bear the ISBN number,” VC said.

“When I joined here in April 2021, many teachers came with the demand that the printed text material of the university should have ISBN number. Taking cognizance of this, we immediately contacted Raja Rammohan Roy National Agency and after completion of the required process, now our university too has been registered as a publisher on behalf of the agency”, she added.