Teachers’ stir, and now corona, DU students fear losing year

By Rohan Agarwal

New Delhi, March 26 (SocialNews.XYZ) First teachers' strike, and now COVID-19 -- the final year students of the Delhi University who still await result of the previous semester, now fear losing a year.

Last year in December when final year students of Delhi University sat for 5th semester examination, they hoped the results would come by January-end like every year. But, three months later, the results of most of the course are yet to be announced.

"While we were writing our exams, our seniors had told us that results would come by second week of January. But now it's March-end and there are no signs of results being announced anytime soon," Isha Agarwal, a second year student of B.A. Economic (hns.) told IANS.

The delay in announcing results was then attributed to the indefinite strike of Delhi University's teachers who demanded absorption of the ad-hoc teachers. They said answer sheet evaluation will not be done until the demand was met.

And now with the entire country into lockdown mode due to the coronavirus threat, the students fear losing out the last semester also.

Akshita Gupta, who is a student of B.A. English (honours) in PGDAV College of Delhi University, says the delay in the 5th semester's result and the lockdown have left the process of filing of examination forms for the last semester uncertain.

"First of all, we cannot fill the form for the last semester because of the awaited results and, second, due to the ongoing lockdown, the colleges are also closed leaving us in a dilemma," Gupta said.

For Divya Singh who was planning to fill forms of competitive exams after her graduation, the future looks uncertain.

"We are still waiting for the 5th semester's results, even if the country overcomes the loss of lockdown, our university would have to clear the backlogs of the teachers' strike," Singh said.

After several rounds of meetings between the DU administration and the teachers, some courses have announced results for the final year students, but with the ongoing lockdown, the students' still remain uncertain about their future.

Anukriti Sachdeva, a student of B.A.Journalism in Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, told IANS, "We are now reading from the resources that our faculty has uploaded on the college's website, but their is no communication for the way semester will proceed from now on."

Sachdeva has already got a job during her campus placements, but with semester running behind schedule, she fears if she would be able to join on time.

(Rohan Agarwal can be contacted at Rohan.a@ians.in )

Source: IANS