SOL students reject semester system

NEWDELHI: Students at Delhi University’s (DU) School of Open Learning (SOL) held a referendum against the implementation of the semester system in the school this academic year onwards. Of around 10,000 students who participated in the referendum, 99% rejected the administration’s decision of implementing the Choice-based Credit System (CBCS) in SOL.

The School of Open Learning is a correspondence option offered by the varsity. Till the last academic session, SOL had been following the annual mode of examinations. The university had in July announced the introduction of CBCS in SOL, a system in which exams are held in semesters.

Students said the School of Open Learning is not yet ready for the changes. “SOL is so unprepared that till now even the revised study material has not been made available to the students, even with exams due next month. Even teachers are unsure what to teach in class,” said Harish Gautam, member of the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), a students’ group that organised the referendum.

School of Open Learning students have been protesting against the move. Some of them had also sat on a hunger strike in August.

“We have even written to the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to intervene,” Gautam said.

Officials at SOL said that a “group of students” were trying to create “unnecessary chaos”. “The university is trying to make the transformation of SOL from annual mode to semester mode very smooth. Some students are creating chaos for their own political benefits,” said an official who asked not to be named.