DUTA Press Release, 28.11.2014

The DUTA expresses dismay at the Examination fiasco in which the Financial Management Question Paper for B.Com (Honours),that had been given to the students of SOL in the annual examination in May 2014, was repeated in the regular 5th semester examination in November 2014.

Apart from an independent inquiry into this matter, the reasons for repeated failures, on the part of the Delhi University Administration, to ensure smooth and credible conduct of Examinations need to be investigated. The University Administration chooses to look the other way, even though it is clear that the Examination Branch has been unable to deal with the burden of coordinating, twice in a year, the large scale preparations required to ensure a foolproof conduct of the Examinations for over 1.5 lakhs regular students and over 4.5 lakhs students of SOL. The moot point is that the Semester System, which was forcibly implemented in all undergraduate courses in 2010-11, has been a logistic nightmare for Delhi University, besides severely compromising the teaching-learning process.

 For the last four years, the Question Paper Committees are constituted at the eleventh hour before the start of the Examinations. No reasonable time is invested in the moderation of Question Papers. Hence, the replication of questions or the formulation of ‘out-of-syllabus’ questions is rapidly becoming frequent. In addition, there are numerous other blunders such as the question papers reaching 45 minutes late,  students being forced to attempt the wrong question paper, students who are present being marked absent, wrong marks entered in marksheetetc, for which students have to run from pillar to post with no   redressal of their grievances.

The evaluation process is also a hurried and perfunctory affair, ad-hoc teachers are often forced to correct unreasonably large number of scripts, including those of papers that they have not been teaching.

The total mess and chaos has severely compromised the value and credibility of the examination system.

The DUTA appeals to the University to review the Semester System which lies at the root of all these and many other problems, such as the threatened derecognition of the SOL degree, inordinate delay in declaration of results, withdrawal of student-friendly provisions including Supplementary Exams and Special Chance. The DUTA has consistently held the position that the Semester System is unsuitable to the University’s needs and realities. It was introduced under pressure from the previous Government, as a precursor to the infamous FYUP. Now that the FYUP has been rolled back, it makes no sense to continue with the Semester System.

The DUTA shares the anguish felt by students and parents at the University’s indifference towards the rapid degradation in the quality of education being imparted in its colleges and departments. Public stakeholders of the University must unite to ensure that the current Administration is made accountable for all the destructive changes it has introduced in its tenure.

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