Panjab University to Introduce NSS as an Elective Subject
The elective will be credit based, and Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs has developed the curriculum.
Panjab University is going to introduce an elective subject for the National Service Scheme (NSS) from the next academic session. The University Grants Commission (UGC) granted the permission to introduce NSS as an elective subject last year.
The elective will be credit based, and Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs has developed the curriculum. The syllabus has been sent to the academic council for the final approval. Prof. Navdeep Sharma, Coordinator of NSS, stated that the elective would be launched from 2017. The university will associate with NSS with skill-development and talks were on to introduce such programmes to NSS volunteers.
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An NSS Bulletin which contains the success stories of its volunteers will also begin in PU campus as well as 192 PU-affiliated colleges. It would be a quarterly magazine which will be published by NSS programme officers. The main objective for launching the magazine and elective is to attract more students to join NSS as it is a way of life. NSS inculcates discipline in the students’ lives. As NSS holds weightage for National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) review, most of the PU-affiliated colleges are applying to get NSS units.
According to reports of varsity, last year only three colleges had applied for NSS units. However, this year nine colleges have already applied for NSS units and more colleges are expected to apply within few days.
The varsity will hold a workshop to train the faculty for NSS so that they could further train NSS volunteers. Sharma indicated that NSS is not merely cleanliness and it means many things. Hence, it is mandatory to train faculty for it.