AC and EC Members of DU demanded from VC to take this “tentative” Date-Sheet back and take the decision on the examinations in the statutory bodies with the wider consultations in order to meet the challenges posed by COVID pandemic.
Today, in a letter to VC, they expressed their anguish that they had repeatedly wrote to VC not to conduct online examination through Open Book mode as it was anti-student, anti-social justice and in violation of their own rules and regulationds. Even then, a Notification by Dean (Examinations) Ref No Dean Exam)/)2/2019-20/ came on 14th May 2020, in which it was provided “In case the situation does not appear to be normal in view of COVID-19 and to maintain social distancing,…the university will adopt alternative mode of examinations, i.e. Open Book Examinations (OBE) for final semester/term/year UG/PG…”.
Now, on 29th May 2020, the University has come out with a “Tentative” Date Sheet of Semester/Annual Mode July 2020 in Open Book Examination Mode (OBE) with online downloading and uploading. We are pained that our students are treated as guinea pigs to an unprecedented examination mode with a “tentative” date-sheet. They further wrote, “You are going ahead with OBE despite strong protest from teachers and students and without any approval of the statutory bodies, i.e. AC and EC. Recent surveys on this issue by the students and teachers have shown very high disapproval rating.
Here, we submit two questions which is perplexing the whole university community:
(a) In just 15 days, how the situation changed so drastically that the university has shifted its position and opted for the alternative OBE as the only mode to be applied across all students of all the streams. How did the university reached to such a conclusion? Where was this assessment made? We request you to provide all the communications and minutes of the meeting(s) related to this issue.
(b) Why is the date ‘tentative’ and OBE certain? Do the factors, which makes the dates tentative, not influence examination mode of the OBE?
While the date-sheet is tentative, the OBE is fixed, which clearly shows the bias of the administration for it. This switch from one mode of examination to another mode is in violation of our rules and regulations and our commitment to the students, which the university made at the time of their admissions. The students have taken admissions in a particular examination scheme and now can not be altered unilaterally.
There are many students, who are stuck in their native places and remote areas without their books, notes, laptops, computers and proper internet connections. Even Delhi-based students are not confident about the proper functioning of the internet connection. Around three fourth of our students are coming from socially and economically weaker sections like SCs, STs, OBCs, PwDs and EWS, who have problems in terms of both – the hardware and the software.
There are issues of cybersecurity, which may compromise with confidentiality and sacrosanct nature of the examination.”
These are the AC Members – Seema Das, Richa Raj, Sudhanshu Kumar, and Pradeep Kumar and EC Members – JL Gupta and Rajesh Jha.
Press Secretary
Richa Raj/SBN Tiwary/Ashok/Rajesh Jha
