Semester System in Delhi University

RESIST THE VC’S UNDEMOCRATIC IMPOSITION OF THE SEMESTER SYSTEM!!

JOIN HANDS IN DEMANDING CONCRETE SOLUTIONS TO THE CURRENT PROBLEMS OF DELHI UNIVERSITY!!

The Vice- Chancellor of Delhi University has decided to implement the semester system from the Academic Session starting July 2010. This is a decision he has taken in spite of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) unanimously opposing this move. The student community has been largely left in the dark about the implementation of this system Let us take a look at the arguments that the administration is putting forward in favour of implementing this system:

Since the semester system has been implemented in premier educational institutes across the world and in India (IIT, JNU), it should also be implemented in Delhi University.

However, taking into consideration the fact that DU is a university with more than 80 colleges, is it safe to assume that the mere implementation of the semester system would benefit the university? We would like to inform the Vice Chancellor that universities like Oxford, Cambridge and London School of Economics do not follow the semester system. It is illogical to assume that the academic excellence of our university is going to increase by adopting a system that has been implemented in other universities across the world.

It would give students greater scope to study papers besides their own subject papers.

Interdisciplinary courses have already been introduced in this university in several programmes on paper but colleges have faced acute shortage of faculty and space during the implementation of these courses. It is difficult to understand why the administration is under the impression that these problems will be solved by actually increasing the number of interdisciplinary courses offered when the real problem we are facing is the scarcity of faculty and infrastructure in colleges.

It would enable easy transfer of students to other national and international universities.

How feasible is the transfer of students to other national and international universities?

Transfer to foreign universities is a luxury which few of us can afford. There is no form of uniformity in the level of education and courses offered in India as well as at the global level. Transfer of students in such a situation would be highly limited.

By increasing the number of papers and classes, “students will work throughout the year rather than through periods of leisure and hyperactivity.”

Since our workload would increase with the increase in the minimum number of papers, does the administration expect students to study only what exists in the syllabus? This would seriously restrict the time we could spend in seminars, extra-curricular activities, etc. Isn’t this also going to lead to further dissociation from campus life and society? Not only do the recommendations emphasize the administrations attempts to limit students’ creativity and increase dependency of evaluation on examinations, it also is increasing the percentage of marks kept aside for attendance from the current 5% to 10% of the overall marks for the paper.

Regarding evaluation, the Empowered Committee looking into the implementation of the semester system has proposed centralized joint-evaluation of answer scripts where each answer script would be checked by 3-4 examiners. Presently, with only one examiner, results are announced as late as September. With the implementation of the semester system, students would be giving exams at the end of each semester. With 3-4 examiners checking papers, the time taken to check these papers would extend the announcement of results to much longer than the current 4 months. The Committee is of the opinion that evaluation of the answer scripts by more than one person would be reason enough to do away with the fictitious roll number system as well as the system of revaluation of answer scripts. The safety nets that one has with a centralized evaluation system are being done away with and with the increased workload and time constraints on the teachers, one dreads to think of the quality of evaluation and even then, the revaluation option would not be available to students anymore.

Ours is not a defense of the existing system in DU which is flawed at many levels. However, we believe that the debate should be centred around the problems of the existing system and the manner in which they can be addressed. This certainly does not entail adopting a semester system without trying to tackle the several problems that do exist in DU. Nowhere, in any of the documents that the administration has brought out regarding the semester system, is there a mention of how this system is going to address the existing flaws in the university, nor does it provide DU with a vision or path for smooth, inclusive and democratic functioning where students from all kinds of backgrounds can come to study and expect quality education, with good faculty and infrastructural facilities.

Delhi University consists of 83 colleges where students from all across the country with different educational, linguistic, regional backgrounds come to study. We all know the dismal state of most of our primary and secondary institutions and this creates huge differences amongst students even before they join the university. The problems  which students face like lack of hostels, constant fee hikes, coping up with the curriculum in DU after coming from non-English educational backgrounds, etc just get intensified once they reach college. In a lot of colleges, the admission process extends till September. How are students, especially those from deprived backgrounds, expected to adapt themselves to this system and answer a semester exam in September itself?

Huge number of vacancies in teachers’ positions and the lack of infrastructural facilities leading to classes not being held has become the norm for most colleges across DU. A few years ago, inter-disciplinary courses were increased to include a large number of courses from various subjects. However, these options exist only on paper. The need for tutorials and remedial classes has increasingly been felt and have been mentioned in past policies but there has been no progress on this front in almost every college in DU. There are very few facilities for disabled students as well and very little is being done to address these problems. The administration claims that with the introduction of the semester system, student transfers to foreign universities would be made easier but it is common knowledge that only a miniscule number of students can avail of these transfers. Is it fair to ignore the interests of a huge majority of students just to suit the interests of an elite minority?

In spite of facing heavy opposition from the university community including most of the teachers who have pointed out the increased difficulties that the semester system would bring about without addressing current problems, how does the VC explain the manner in which he has bypassed all the democratic norms of this campus to push forward his agenda?  Is the VC oblivious to the harsh realities of our campus or is he so struck by the idea of a semester system that is apparently “so successful in universities across the world” that he is unable to see how its implementation without looking at the basic problems of the university would adversely affect the student community. Who is the semester system actually being implemented for? Does the VC want to put this university on a path where education is made more exclusive and would be provided to a few and ignore the vast majority of students coming from deprived backgrounds who come to DU to study and gain employment. We don’t need to inform the VC how important education is for this vast majority and how catering to a small minority is going to deny this large majority their right to quality education.  DU cannot afford to have a VC who chooses to ignore the real problems in campus and impose his views on this university.

AISA appeals to the student community and all the democratic and progressive forces in this university to come out against this undemocratic imposition of the DU administration and to ensure the status of quality and inclusive education in this University.

Sunny Kumar,                                                                                                                                     Rakesh Meena

General Secretary, D.U. AISA                                                                                       President, D.U. AISA