Expressing concern over a “looming crisis” in Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL), where for the first time semester examinations are to take place later this month, several teachers have written to the university visitor, President Ram Nath Kovind, calling for postponement of the exams and rolling back of the semester system for this year.
Delhi University had introduced the Choice Based Curriculum System (CBCS) to the distance learning programmes it runs, including the SOL and NCWEB, in the current session. As a result, instead of annual mode of examinations, students will have to sit for the semester examinations. Since the start of the academic session, several students, under the banner of Krantikari Yuva Sangharsh (KYS) have been highlighting the lack of preparation to implement the new system and have been carrying out regular protests against it.
“There has been chaos at all study centres of SOL since the introduction of the system,” the group reiterated in a statement on Sunday. The group also alleged that study material had not been made available to most. “All this while the exams are due this very month,” it added.
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“We have been observing the growing agitation of SOL students and the high handedness with which the university is circumventing to their objections regarding the manner in which the system has been introduced,” the letter to the President said. It was said to be signed by about 100 teachers.
The teachers said they were shocked that without adequate classes being organised and updated study material being provided “nearly 1.5 lakh first year students would be forced to compete in the upcoming examinations along with regular mode students.”
A review of the study materials provided upon which distance education students mostly rely on showed that they were “full of errors” and not a product of academic protocols, they wrote in the letter. The teachers also raised issues about the way the new system was introduced, arguing that it was “bulldozed” through the university’s statutory bodies.
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While a parity in the mode of education between regular courses and distance learning has been welcomed by both the teachers and KYS, “the imposition of a sham parity” with the university rushing through a major restructuring could not be justified, the teachers said. Adding to the warning issued by KYS that there would be “mass failures” in the upcoming examinations, the teachers said that given their experience as evaluators, “the SOL students are going to fair very badly..”
The teachers and KYS have demanded that the CBCS and semester system in SOL be rolled back for the current batch and introduce it from the next academic session with adequate preparation.