DUTA Press Statement reg. Recent Court Order on the writ petition National Federation of the Blind vs Union of India and ORS

The Minutes of the meeting held on 8th June, 2020 at 11:00 am through video conferencing regarding online examination being conducted by various academic institutions during COVID-19 under the Chairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD, New Delhi and the order of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi on W.P. (C) 3411/2020, C.M. Nos.12111-12112/2020 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND vs Union of India and ORS leave us disappointed.

A close reading of the said minutes confirms our apprehension about the extremely grave and grievous implications of the so-called online or Open Book Examinations planned by the University of Delhi and other such institutions for the terminal year students of degree programmes: a concern repeatedly raised by students and teachers which remain unappreciated by the University administration.

The minutes consider, among others, the following two proposals as relief to students with disabilities:

“a. Students with disabilities may be given the option of appearing/not appearing in the online/offline examination.
b. Those who do not opt for online/offline examination may be exempted from the examination system and may be evaluated on the basis of their performance in the previous semesters and performance in the class test during the current semester;”

If anything, these proposals deny the fundamental principle of equal treatment for all students in the terminal semester. Options, in this instance, do not reduce inequality: they reinforce it by creating categories which are bad in law.

The so-called online exam or OBE is an institutionalised attempt to reward dishonesty by having absolutely no mechanism to check / punish unfair means. Each student appearing for this unsupervised examination has to fulfill a ridiculous requirement of declaring that he/she has not resorted to the same. Those who are unable to appear for the OBE are given the option of a regular examinations later. This discriminatory option is something that has already been offered by Delhi University to all students.

The additional proposal to give students with disabilities an option not to appear in the examinations but be graded on the basis of past performance and internal assessment is discriminatory too for exactly the same reasons that apply to the first option. An equal treatment that has academic justification is not to go through examinations now but be promoted with marks/grades obtained in previous semesters. All should be treated equally and all should be at the earliest given the opportunity to improve through regular examinations.

All students of the intermediate semesters are graded by a combination of previous semester grades and current internal assessment marks: a policy which can be extended to the students of the terminal semester as well as an evidence of equal treatment. If the principle of the students of intermediate semesters getting their degrees without one semester examination has been accepted, there is no ground to say that the degree of the students of the terminal semester loses value in the absence of one semester examinations, and that too in an extraordinary situation.

And in this madness to usher in a model that remote / online examination and teaching/ learning can be conducted irrespective of an abnormal condition, the administrators and the policy-makers do not hesitate to push reputed educational institutions into ignominy. We are being forced to facilitate digital divide among students by favouring those with access to internet devices, books, notes and online resources, and penalising those who are denied access to such resources. We are also witness to our university, knowingly, enticing young students earn better grades through dishonest means: in a bitterly competitive world, the young minds are under constant pressure not to be left behind when some of their fellow students may be rewarded by resorting to unfair means.

It is in the backdrop of these realities that we are disappointed by the said court order. That the order does not interrogate the wisdom the decision of the University administration to have this form of examination for only the enabled and offer an option later for the disabled is disappointing.

Ironically, the court order accepts this as a decision of the competent academic authorities on the basis of information provided. We know that the DU VC, with governmental support / under government pressure is carrying out this tragic experiment without even attempting a meeting of the Academic Council: the highest ‘academic body’ of the University which is supposed to deliberate on the decision and whose meeting the VC is supposed to convene at the earliest to allow a discussion on the matter before deciding to implement the same.

Rajib Ray President, DUTA Rajinder Singh Secretary, DUTA