Over 2 lakh await results at School of Open Learning

New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) Over two lakh students of B.A. and B.Com courses at the School of Open Learning (SOL) will have to wait longer for their results, scheduled to come out in June, with the university saying it may be another month before they are declared.

The SOL announced the results for the Honours courses last month but not for those studying under the degree 'programme'.

"This (the delay) has been happening since the last four years. Ideally the results should be declared in the month of June, but during all these years it is not until December that we get to know it," Harish Kumar, a B.A. (programme) first year student of SOL, told IANS.

A group of students held a protest two days back demanding the declaration of results for about 2 to 2.5 lakh students and had apprised a university official of their concerns.

"We had met OSD Examinations Satish Kumar and told him about the delay. He was sympathetic to our concerns and assured us that the results will be declared soon...," said Kumar.

"To call it an inconvenience would be an understatement. The worst happens with the third year students who are left in lurch till they get their results and by the time it happens it is too late for by then they usually have missed the deadline for most masters courses."

Dean of Examinations Vinay Gupta blamed the volume of the number of scripts for the delay and said they are improving their performance every year.

"As far as I know, no one has been denied admission or career opportunity this time. We have given the 'confidential results' to all those students who have approached us in time...," Gupta told IANS.

"But you need to factor in one thing to understand the problem, look at the volume of scripts at SOL. It is enormous, I think it's anything between 18 to 20 lakh. And to evaluate these many scripts in one month is impossible, you need to understand."

The SOL has very little of its own faculty, he said, and the university has to rope in regular college teachers to evaluate its scripts.

"... at the same time the examinations for the regular students are also there.

"So, they are engaged in the evaluation of the scripts of regular students as well. It is only after that's finished, they start the evaluation of the SOL students," he said.

Gupta however insisted that the situation is improving and cited the declaration of results for honours courses in August -- done a month earlier as compared to previous years but late by two months still.

He said that the Executive Council of the University is apprised of the problem which has advised the SOL to share the part of the burden.

"We want the SOL to share the responsibility in this respect. .. we are improving year by year, still a lot has to be done, I can't deny. We are working on it," Gupta added.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)