DU told to conduct exams at centres from Sept 14; huge task, varsity says Many did not appear for online exams in first 5 days: DU data
›
There should be enough data to analyse the number of students who intend to sit for the examination physically in September.
DELHI HIGH COURT
Datta, appearing for DU, said it would be too short time to complete preparations, the bench changed the date to September 14. It asked DU’S counsel to file an affidavit and indicate the end date of the physical examination, after he expressed his inability to inform the end date immediately to the court.
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) is not happy with the court’s order. Abha Dev Habib, treasurer, DUTA and assistant professor, Miranda House, said, “This will mean those students who could not appear for OBE because of adverse circumstances will now have to take health risks and appear for exams physically. Blind students, those living in different parts of the country and facing issues of connectivity will have to travel to Delhi, expose themselves to the virus and spend ₹40,000-50,000 on travel and rent. These physical exams will be monitored, while all such important parameters to ensure credibility were relaxed for OBE.”
An official in the DU’S admission branch, who wished not to be named, said, “It’s going to be a huge task to conduct physical exams amid the pandemic. DU has students from across the country and it won’t be possible for many to travel to Delhi since public transport right now is not completely safe. Also, it will be very difficult for the university to complete the evaluation process for the online exams before September 14.”
The court expressed anguish over DU in not providing details of grievances to the redressal committee reconstituted by the Delhi HC itself for fairness and transparency. The bench said if the varsity claims that there has been hardly any complaints, it is all the more necessary that the complaints received were satisfactorily addressed by the grievance officer (1st tier) and placed before the committee (2nd tier).
The bench, while hearing a bunch of pleas by PWD students seeking various facilities for the open book exams, directed the University Grants Commission take steps to issue a fresh advisory to all central universities to defer their demand of seeking provisional certificates for entry to postgraduate courses.
The court directed DU to verify the number of PWD category students who were let out of OBE, and those in the segment who wish to sit for the physical exam even though they may have taken the online mode, for working out modalities of a place of stay and transportation from their present residence to Delhi.
HC was informed that the students had gone back to their home towns due to the lockdown and arrangements would have to be made to bring them back.
The court directed Delhi University to create a separate e-mail ID, where students can e-mail their requests along with details of foreign universities where they have secured provisional admission so that a request letter can be addressed directly by the Delhi University to the institute concerned.
The court sought to know from the varsity the date by which the results will be declared for all streams of final-year courses and posted the matter for further hearing on August 27.
nNEW DELHI: A large number of Delhi University’s undergraduate and postgraduate students did not appear for the ongoing online open-book exams (OBE) on the varsity’s portal during the first five days, shows data submitted in the Delhi high court on Monday. However, DU officials said this was because several students received and submitted tests over email, which these numbers did not reflect. A majority of the absentees are from the School of Open Learning (SOL).
According to the data, at least 62,852 students, including those enrolled with SOL and the Noncollegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB), were supposed to appear in the exams, according to the schedule for August 10. Of them, while 54,619 marked their attendance for the exam on the day, only 48,577 attempted the test on the university portal.
In effect, more than 13% were absent for the exam on the day.
Similarly, 132,169 students were expected to appear for the August 11 exams. Of them, 98,907 registered for the exam, while 82,429 attempted the papers, which means more than onefourth of students did not attempt the test on the university portal.
Despite opposition, DU began conducting online exams in the open-book mode for 260,000 finalyear undergraduate and postgraduate students, as a one-time measure in view of the pandemic. The exams began on August 10, and will be on till August 31.
While hearing multiple petitions filed by students against the exams on August 5, the high court had asked the University to submit preliminary data of OBE exam attendance.
Students supposed to sit for the exam*
Students who registered on the day of the exam*
Students who attempted the online exam after registering*
300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0
% who remained absent 13.1% 25.2% 5.9% 22.0% 41.0% *All numbers include REGULAR+NCWEB+SOL; Source: DU submission in Delhi HC
Only a few exams were scheduled for August 12 in view of Janmashtami, and while 380 of 404 expected students registered on the day, only 49 gave the exam.
The data submitted by the University on Monday showed that 188,448 students were supposed to appear in the online exams on August 13. Of these, 147,045 registered and 22% did not appear in the exam that day. On August 14, 41% of 257,914 students, who had exams scheduled that day, did not give the test on the varsity portal.
DU dean of colleges Balaram Pani said, “Many students have got their question papers over
emails from their respective colleges and departments, which is why the university portal is not reflecting the information. We are yet to collect the information of such students from the colleges and departments. We are also collecting information on the number of students who submitted their answer scripts via emails.”
Pani, also the SOL director, said, “Many students enrolled in DU distance education courses are either working or are from very poor families and unable to appear for online exams. But the university will give all these students another chance.”
nNEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has started construction work on the Aerocity-tughlaqabad corridor, part of its Phase-4 expansion plans. The 22km-long corridor will have a double-decker viaduct –with Metro tracks on the upper deck and a flyover for vehicular traffic beneath — on a 2.5km-stretch between Sangam Vihar and Ambedkar Nagar.
The six-lane flyover, as well as an underpass at Saket-g station (in the south Delhi neighbourhood’s G Block), on the corridor will help decongest the busy Mehrauli-badarpur (MB) Road, a DMRC official said.
Anuj Dayal, executive director, corporate communications, DMRC, said, “MB Road will become signal-free between Sangam Vihar and Saket, after the flyover and underpass are complete. A ramp will help traffic move uninterrupted from Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg to MB Road, and an underpass will aid movement from MB Road towards Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg.”
This is the second doubledecker viaduct the DMRC has planned in the Capital, after a similar move in the works for the Metro’s Majlis Park-maujpur corridor, though the section will be shorter than the one on Aerocity-tughlaqabad corridor.
The Aerocity-tughlaqabad corridor will have 15 stations, and will connect border areas in south Delhi such as Tigri, Khanpur, Tughlaqabad, and others, to the Indira Gandhi International airport.
On Monday, the DMRC started casting U-girders to be installed on a 4.2km elevated section between Sangam Vihar and Saket-g.
“This stretch includes four elevated stations — Sangam Vihar, Khanpur-devoli, Ambedkar Nagar and Saket-g — of the corridor. Casting work is being done at a yard in Pushp Vihar,” he said.
U-girders are precast pre-tensioned, U-shaped girders on which tracks can be layed immediately. These are prepared in yards and brought to the sites.
While the Corporation started work on Phase-4 in December last year, work was stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Construction work on all three priority corridors of Phase-4 has gained pace, despite a severe workforce crunch due to the ongoing pandemic, and other lockdown-related constraints,” Dayal said.
Aerocity-tughlaqabad is one of the three priority corridors under Phase-4. Work on the RK Ashram - Janakpuri West Metro corridor started in December last year, while work on Majlis Parkmaujpur corridor started on Sunday. As per the expansion plan, 61.6km of new Metro lines will be constructed across three different corridors.