As DU admin favours online exams, teachers speak in different voice

While the top brass in Delhi University ponderes over online system to conduct semester exams amid the nationwide lockdown, teachers, members of academic council have started to speak up against the probable plan of conducting examinations in one of Asia's largest universities.

Rajesh Jha, a member of Executive Council, has raised concerns over the procedure adopted to decide the methods of conducting exams, saying the top brass has been bypassing the compulsory process of taking a decision through statutory bodies such as the Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC).

"This is not only imprudent on the part of DU officials but also beyond their jurisdiction, as they are trying to bypass the statutory bodies such as the AC and EC which are empowered to take decisions and resolve the examination matters," said a joint statement by Rajesh Jha and J.L. Gupta (another EC member).

They said the move was an attempt to influence the two task force committees of UGC and MHRD. Both committees have been tasked to recommend measures related to annual exams, academic schedule and other important aspects for universities in India keeping in view the nationwide lockdown.

The two are a part of a group Academics for Action and Development (AAD), which claimed that roping in DUCC to conduct exams was an uphill task.

"It is amazing that the DUCC could not hold the Delhi University Entrance Test (DUET) catering to a limited number of students and had to outsource the work to the National Testing Agency (NTA). On the other hand, suddenly the DUCC becomes confident to hold the online examinations of all undergraduate and post-graduate students," AAD said in a statement.

"Added to this, another limiting factor is the treatment of internal assessment marks which is a necessary component of the Composite Marks Sheet," AAD added.

The group claimed that the solution of the problems of the online examination lies in regular examinations, giving priority to final year students. IANS