School of Open Learning plans to have new centres after several students complaint about distance and accommodation facilities.

University of Delhi’s School of Open Learning (SOL) has decided to open a new building in Tahirpur, East Delhi. The tentative structure would be a seven storey long building on a 2,100 square metre land at Dilshad Garden. The varsity is also planning to open two other centres in Rohini and Uttam Nagar, to cater students from North West and West Delhi. Around 20,000 students from the area adjoining  Loni in Tahirpur, Rohini and Uttam Nagar are  enrolled for different courses at SOL.

A new examination branch will also be built to avoid delays in conduction of exams and declaration of results. This decision came after first year students protested against the implementation of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) in SOL after it got approval from Executive Council. The students complained that the current Centre in North Campus did not have enough space to accommodate students who came for the Personal Contact Programme, which endeavoured to equip students with the required infrastructure.

Ramesh Bharadwaj, Officer on Special Duty (OSD), informed the Times of India that SOL will streamline the system. The college has available land in Tahirpur area and it will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Central Public Works departments (CPWD) to erect a seven storey building. He advocated for the implementation of CBCS in SOL as the institute was not recognized by Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Open and Distance Learning for it used to follow the Three Year Undergraduate Programme system that has been revoked from almost all the colleges of Delhi University.

Moreover, he added, “More than 90% study materials have been published and we are inviting students daily in batches of 3,000 to collect it. We have already provided soft copies since 25^th August, a week before classes started on 1^st September.”

The University Grant Commission launched the CBCS system in 2016 for Delhi University but SOL adhered to the old Three Year Undergraduate Programme till August 2018 when it along with NCWEB switched to CBCS to pace up with other colleges of varsity.

Prior to this, SOL had only 20 classes in a year but now the institute can easily hold 17-20 classes, per semester at 42 centers.

Featured Image Credits: India Today

Priyanshu

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