Inconsistent attendance policy troubles DU students

Delhi University students writing the semester exams are now subject to a hopelessly inconsistent attendance policy across colleges. While some colleges are yet to compute attendance and are allowing everyone to write exams, another set has set the minimum attendance mark lower than the university-stipulated 66.6%. A third set of colleges say that as instructions giving principals power to decide have not been issued in writing, they will be following the 66.6% norm.

Kamala Nehru College brought the number of detainees down from 253 to 80 by lowering the minimum attendance mark to 50%. "Since the university has given principals the power to take decisions on their own, we decided, judiciously, to reduce it to 50% to accommodate as many as possible. The decision has been supported by the staff council and attendance committee," says Geetesh Nirban, spokesperson, KNC.

Its neighbour, Gargi College, is allowing everyone for now. But whether the set of students writing the exams now will be allowed to take the second or fourth semester exams will depend on their attendance. "The science practicals start very early. We are going to calculate it yearly and draw up the list of those short of attendance in March or April," says Gargi principal, Meera Ramachandran.

The situation is the same at Dyal Singh College. They will be sticking to 66.6% but are yet to compile the data. "Unless we get something in writing, I have no powers to alter things. We are now letting students write the exams and are simultaneously compiling the list. If we find students have fallen short we will have to stop them," says principal I S Bakshi.

In North Campus, Ramjas College has lowered the minimum attendance to 22%. "We wanted to allow as many students as possible," says principal, Rajendra Prasad. Khalsa College, too, is allowing all students to write. "We got the parents to submit undertakings and warned them that this concession will not be available from next time," says principal Jaswinder Singh.

The question teachers are asking is what will happen to the students who are detained. "Abroad, if you are detained for one semester, you write the exam in the next. What we have here is neither annual nor semester and in this hybrid system you waste a year. But next year there will be a four-year system in place," observes Sanam Khanna who teaches English at KNC.

Moreover, the new exam policies have, apparently, left students "frazzled". "The first page, where the students are required to fill in details, has changed a lot. They have introduced many more parameters and new roll-number formats. Students were frazzled as they weren't informed in advance and were filling it wrong. It's a good system but they sent three-four page instructions for invigilators on the morning of the exam. The adhocism is monumentally foolish," says a teacher.

Osmania University debars 30, 000 students from writing exams

A staggering 30,000 students have been barred from sitting in the annual undergraduate examination under Osmania University in a massive crackdown to improve extremely poor attendance across colleges in the city and send a strong message to students bunking classes, authorities said on Thursday.

About 70,000 students out of 1 lakh registered students are now sitting for the examinations which began last week and will continue till the end of November, senior officials said.

"As per strict instructions of Osmania University (OU) about 30,000 students were detained due to lack of attendance from across all under graduate colleges which are affiliated to the university," G Biskshmaiah, Controller of Examination at OU, told TOI.

"The university cannot be lenient with candidates who have just about 20% attendance," he added.

Authorities cracked the whip to bring some discipline back into the system after they found thousands of students had zero-20 % attendance throughout the academic year and did not take steps to improve their attendance.

Officials admit that it was needless to say that regular strikes at the university demanding separate state of Telangana also had a toll on attendance.

Two days of strike last week following suicide by D Santosh Kumar, a PhD aspirant in the university campus was an example of how crucial working days are lost.

Authorities also barred several student union leaders with poor attendance from sitting in the examination. Some of them spearheaded the T-issue demonstration and prevented other students from entering classes.

Several student leaders of Telangana agitation from OU's constituent colleges figured from Secunderabad PG College and Nizam College.

"We have missed classes for a political cause. The state government should intervene and allow students who were part of the agitation to appear for the examination," said S Prashant, student leader of Nizam College in Basheerbagh.

The academic year itself was short this time and the Telangana strikes made it worse by causing disruption of classes for at least 15 days.

Debarred students plan protests

Managements of top city colleges said as per the instructions of the university, they had kept a strict online log of attendance and hence the crackdown was easier as identifying the erring students was not difficult.

Students who were denied a chance to write the examination which started last week are planning to protest. About 135 students who were detained in Loyola Degree College, Alwal had submitted a memorandum to the college authorities asking them to write off their attendance shortage.

In Villa Marie College for Women, Somajiguda, 30 students who were detained have also staged a protest. The students who miss the examination this November will have to forego an academic year to clear the papers.

The management representatives said most students who were detained due to attendance shortage are those who have been bunking college regularly for personal reasons.