Delhi University students' letter to the Chancellor

To,
Shri M. H. Ansari,
The Honble Vice President of India,
Chancellor, University of Delhi,
Delhi.

Sub: Election to the Delhi University Academic Council under Statute 7 (1) (xiii) of the Delhi University Act.

Respected Sir,

1. We, the undersigned students of Delhi University, are all rank holders in various courses taught at the University.

2. We would like to bring to your notice that University of Delhi has not held elections for five student representatives to the Academic Council under Statute 7 (1) (xiii)(pg 23) read with Appendix C(pg 168) for the last 10 years. According to the rules laid down in the above-mentioned Appendix, the election is to be held from an electoral college consisting of the top three rank-holders in the final year from each subject taught at the University of Delhi.

3. The issue of not holding elections of student representatives to the Academic Council, and thereby denying an opportunity for students views to be heard especially in matters affecting them directly, has been raised by teacher representatives in the Academic Council repeatedly, but no satisfactory explanation has been offered by the University administration in justification of this violation of the Statute.

4. In the last three years, the absence of student representatives in the Academic Council has had more serious implications since a number of policy decisions have been taken that primarily affect the students. Delhi University has been in the process of bringing about major policy changes in the structure of courses and examinations, namely switching from the annual mode of examination to the semester mode, which will have a major impact on the quality of courses and pedagogic processes. This has been done and is being done without the students having the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns on matters vitally affecting their interests, and is a violation of their rights guaranteed by Statute 7.

5. The semester system already implemented in the MA/ MSc has had a detrimental effect on the teachinglearning process, and has been against the interest of students, especially those from underprivileged economic and social backgrounds, Hindi medium, non-collegiate women and disabled category, who do not get adequate time to prepare for the first semester exams. As a result a large number of students from these categories are forced to drop out after the first semester itself.

6. If this is replicated in the undergraduate courses, where students are totally raw and unprepared, and come from different State boards and diverse socio-economic backgrounds, the result would be quite disastrous. Since almost two months of teaching and learning time would be lost, the quality of the courses and the pedagogic process would be compromised. Students would have no time to register, analyse, critique and explore. Frequent University exams would keep students in a constant state of tension and promote only a kunji-culture and rote-learning. The current annual system with a weightage of 25\% for internal assessment, that includes continuous term-wise assessment as well as a half-yearly in-house exam in January, is much better. The current system also has a wider choice of concurrent, language and interdisciplinary courses. The internal assessment system gives teachers the flexibility to take care of the different pace of learners, use innovative methods of evaluation and motivate talented students to explore much beyond the minimal requirements of the annual University exam. Since answer scripts are returned to students after the House exam in January, there is much greater transparency as well as the opportunity for students to find out their mistakes and correct them well before the centralized annual board exam. The annual system along with continuous assessment is better designed for fostering excellence (as is borne out by the large number of offers that DU graduates get from some of the best institutions in the world), as well as helping students from widely divergent educational backgrounds to overcome their disadvantages and empower themselves for upward socio-economic mobility.

7. With University exams being held twice a year, in November and May, there would be no time to pursue extra curricular activities and sports which are a vital aspect of education and holistic growth.

8. The worst affected would be students from weaker sections, who would need more time to adjust and settle down. As it is, the University has not bothered to provide enough text books and reading material in Hindi, or adequate facilities for students who physically challenged, such as material that is accessible to the visually challenged. Without adequate training and opportunity to prepare, they would simply carry their disadvantage with them instead of overcoming them. Students coming from remote villages and small towns would find there dreams dashed within three months. The psychological effect of failing in the very first exam cannot be underestimated. There is a real danger of a large scale drop-out from these sections after the very first semester, defeating the very purpose of the social inclusion policies of the Government of India.

9. Many students from weaker sections are initially able to secure admission only to Correspondence Courses, but have a possibility for migration to regular courses after one year, if they do well. This possibility will be foreclosed with the introduction of semesters in the regular stream, since it is not envisaged for the School of Open Learning. This will affect the prospects of almost 200,000 students of SOL.

10. The justification reportedly given by the Vice Chancellor for this fundamental policy change is that credit- transfer to other Universities will be possible. We fail to understand why a student of Delhi University, the best in India, will want to transfer to other Universities, unless they are forced to. When examples of US Universities is given as following a semester system, it would be pertinent to mention that these universities are small cohesive units, where the courses are designed and exams are set and corrected by the teacher internally. The structure of Delhi University is more like the affiliating universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which have an annual exam system. In fact, unlike Oxford and Cambridge, Delhi University has decentralised instruction as well as much greater socio-economic and educational disparity in the student population. Both factors make it eminently unsuitable for a centralized bi-annual examination system, which the University is calling a semester system. Moreover, if a teacher goes on leave it takes weeks or sometimes even more time to find a substitute teacher (this has been the case in some of the semester courses this year) and the students have to suffer the consequences. Since the same course is taught across a large number of colleges and students have to appear for a centralized examination, this would lead to further disparity in students performance.

11. The experience of first year Science students in the thirteen courses running in semester mode for the last one year has been extremely traumatic. Teachers have not been able to complete courses despite their best efforts. Students have not had time to understand basic concepts or to try more difficult questions. There has been no time for co-curricular and cultural activities and sports, which has impoverished their educational experience and institutional life. The prolonged stress has left them psychological and nervous wrecks and instead of being able to develop an interest in the subject, students have taken an intense dislike for Science. A copy of media reports of a Press Conference held by first year Science students and teachers on 16th May highlighting their plight is attached.

12. 2,650 students have submitted a petition to the Vice-Chancellor on 19.4.11, asking him to re-consider the introduction of the semester system at the undergraduate level. The text of the statement is as follows:

Professor Dinesh Singh
Vice Chancellor
University of Delhi

Subject: Semester system at the UG level at DU

We, the undersigned students of Delhi University, wish to express our unequivocal support for the teachers who are opposing the introduction of the semester system in the form envisaged by the University, namely, having University examinations every four months. While requesting you to reconsider the implementation of the semester system, we wish to highlight the following arguments:

Since we have been through the annual examination system, with a weightage of 25\% to internal assessment based on continuous term-wise evaluation and an in-house examination in January, we understand how much time is required for understanding basic concepts and methodologies, which are quite different from the limited exposure we have at school.
The current system gives us time and space for in-depth learning which often goes beyond exam requirements. It also gives students from diverse backgrounds time to settle down and catch up.
In the annual system, there is time to pursue extra-curricular activities such as sports, debating, theatre, music, writing, discussions etc, which are integral aspects of a holistic education. Semesterised University exams will leave space only for exam-oriented rote learning and will play havoc with genuine understanding, creativity and all-round growth. This will leave students ill-equipped to face academic and professional challenges after graduation.

13. We also raise our serious concern over the quality of courses passed in the Academic Council and Executive Council meetings of 25 April 2011. From the press reports we are shocked to know that the Academic Council passed a resolution authorizing the Vice Chancellor to formulate semester based syllabi of the remaining courses by simply bifurcating the existing courses! We wonder if this is an academic reform at all?

14. We appeal to you to direct the Vice-Chancellor to hold the election of student representatives to the Academic Council as per Statute 7(1) (xiii) at the earliest. Pending a thorough debate on the merits and demerits of the semester system vis a vis the current annual system in the presence of student representatives in the AC, the semesterisation of undergraduate courses should be held in abeyance. In particular, the experience of science teachers and students of first year science course that have been functioning in a semester mode for the last one year, should be properly examined, before the same is done to the remaining courses.