Editor's note - The following is the petition against the semester system written by the concerned students of Delhi University

To,

The Vice Chancellor,

University of Delhi

Dear Sir,

We write to you to bring to your notice the impact of the arbitrary enforcement of the semester system on the students of the university.

As was the case last year, students this year are again caught up in the series of reports and counter reports regarding the actions of the university, except that this year the worst fears of the students are coming to pass. The college handbooks that contain the college calendar have been duly refused to Second and Third Year students even when they produce renewed identity cards. As it turns out, accoding to the college calendar there is no “preparation leave” before the internal or annual examinations. Strangely, two terms out of three have been shrunk to the initial four months of college whereas the third term alone stretches for the next four months. Not only has this indiscriminate segregation disregarded the autumn, Diwali and Dussehra breaks it also ignores the fact that students have to submit two assignments per subject when not even half the academic year has elapsed! With the internals being held in November for the first time this year (although there was a rumour to this effect going around last year as well) it is very unfair for students to write exams without a preparation leave, especially when they have not been intimated about any change in the University ordinance which rules that two-third of the course must be covered before the internals.

Faced with the same ambiguity the teachers are taking extra classes in order to complete the course. Just increasing the number of classes hardly means that students will grasp concepts quicker; beyond a point they are in a daze and are hardly able to understand important things. With all the assignments, huge increases in workload and no time to understand concepts, it is inconceivable how they are supposed to sit for exams without even any preparation leave. Assignments alone are enough to drive them to a nervous breakdown.

The condition of the most regular students is the worst. Either they have to bunk lectures to take out time for exam preparation, or they attend lectures, but at the cost of risking their performance in the exams. No matter how hard they try, their performance is bound to suffer, and this is hardly good for their psychological welfare, or their morale, just before exams. In this situation, with gloom, pessimism, pressure and no release, are we to be surprised if many commit suicide?

All this can be averted, only if the university were to show some care, and engage actively with students and teachers – those most affected and least accounted for. For instance post internals, the students could have continued classes till Christmas so that they would not have to rush up with more than half the course before the internals, knowing that a longer winter break means a second term. Not to mention the strangeness of this business, where students will have to attend class from 2^nd January, which is the peak of winters, and their vacations start on December 5, when winter weather is not that bad!

The situation of those preparing for post-graduation courses is exceptionally bad. They can either prepare for these, and ruin their college results completely, or prepare for college exams, and not be able to get into any instituion next year. In fact the internal examinations are actually clashing with a number of MBA entrances. The arbitrary blindess of this whole deal is beyond belief! The very students who have been admitted to the university on the basis of their extra and co-curricular abilities have no time to develop or demonstrate precisely those abilities.

As for the First Year students, the bifurcated syllabus they are studying is honestly, quite absurd. What is the benefit of such an exercise? The syllabus is not properly thought through, with work being distributed unevenly across semesters, concepts not adding up etc. So, if the university speaks of “efficiency” what is one to say? The semester syllabus was brought in without even a revision of the syllabi. The handbook distributed to students by the college does not even contain the syllabi of all semesters! The dissemination of information is affected on levels, beginning with university adminstration itself, which sends new recommendations practically every month regarding the promotion criteria for students under the semester system. On top of that, despite the bad student-teacher ratio under the semester system, despite the increase in students being admitted from 42000 to 49000, the university is yet to responde productively. Infrastructure in colleges has hardly being improved at the rate at which it should be.

With claims about increase in efficiency, the university also says that evaluation will be quickened. What it had not disclosed was that they are DOING AWAY WITH RE-EVALUATION! So, instead of trying to ensure that papers are marked correctly, the university does away with the only way of salvaging a bad marking situation. There have been instances when students have received an increase of upto 10% marks on re-evaluation of a single paper; all students will realize what an effect such a change can make.

The fashion in which the new, “efficient”, semester system of Delhi University is being launched is indicative only of the fact the last people it cares about are the students and teachers. Last year, the University demolished opposition to the semester system by a Court ruling & by threatening teachers with salary-cuts for the days they were on strike. The University has demonstrated efficiency only in blocking people who could have exposed its tyrannical impositions over students in the present & in the years to come.

We place before you the following demands:

1)Restore the system of re-evaluation & rechecking of exam papers

2)Restructure the syllabus keeping in mind the semester system

3)Ensure a sustained improvement in infrastructure

4)Reduce the student-teacher ratio in the university

The Concerned Students of Delhi University

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