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According to officials, Delhi University has declared that students who do not pass their practical exams will be mandated to attend additional classes. Such students will need to retake their classes for a complete semester before they can be deemed to have passed, the University announced.

The University of Delhi has made it mandatory for students who fail their practical exams to attend additional classes, according to officials. Students will have to retake their classes for an entire semester before they can be declared passed. This decision came into effect in the academic session of 2022–2023 after the University adopted the new continuous evaluation scheme in 2020.

“The practical examination requires continuous evaluation and hence calls for students to attend continuous classes.” – Delhi University official

To give greater importance to continuous evaluation and tutorials, the University has updated its assessment structure for undergraduate students. Under the new assessment system, the internal assessment ratio has been modified to 30:70, and the theoretical examination ratio has been modified to 45:55. The activities conducted under this approach will be evaluated for 30 marks for continuous assessment and 10 marks for internal assessment.

For continuous evaluation, a student must have at least 66 percent attendance. If a student fails the practical exam or does not meet the required attendance, they will need to take admission again to appear for the classes and pass the course. The previous system allowed failing students to register as ‘ex-students’ to reappear for the exams. However, the new system requires students to attend classes and pass the practical exams to move forward.

The University has, therefore, decided that students who fail the practical exam need to retake their classes for one semester to pass. Additionally, those who fail practical exams through continuous evaluation will only be eligible for readmission to retake that practical examination.

An example cited by officials was of an M.Sc. student who was unable to attend a class for a particular subject due to illness but still took the exam. The student’s mark sheet would show an ‘Essential Repeat’ in the practical section. However, a practical examination cannot be cleared without attending regular laboratory classes.

“Consider an M.Sc. student who couldn’t attend his classes for a particular subject because he fell ill but still took the examination. His mark sheet would show ER (Essential repeat) in the practical section.” – Delhi University official

Thus, the University has made it clear that students who fail their practical exams under the new assessment structure will have to reappear for additional lab classes. The new assessment scheme places greater emphasis on continuous evaluation and tutorials, with modifications made to the internal and theoretical examination ratios.

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Aryan Vats
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A young mind is full of questions, driven with a passion to change the world, and the Right to information Act or RTI is the perfect tool for them.

Right to Information Act, from its very inception, aimed at initiating change. You ask for ‘it’ and you get ‘it’. This is the basic premise of RTI. It ensures a smooth and immediate, ‘hassle free’ flow of information.

However in Delhi University atleast, the procedure for filing an RTI is far from hassle free. As veteran RTI activist and co-ordinator of the Youth Task Force RTI- Josh4India, Aditya Prasad comments, “At times, I feel RTI is losing its charm because the authorities are not serious in implementing it and the public is not too eager to use it. The way the Commission functions and Appellate Authorities act the fight seems endless. They are making it difficult for the common man to use his right.”

In 2007, Aditya Prasad, a student of Delhi University, challenged the transparency of the newly formed internal assessment system at DU. He filed RTI applications to get details about the internal assessment procedures followed by various colleges and universities. Universities like Indraprastha and Jamia Milia provided him with satisfactory response.

However DU and its colleges refused to cooperate. “Some colleges had the audacity to say that they were not under the RTI act. DU’s approach is vague and they have not uploaded any manual as well. They call themselves a university but every college has its own rules and regulations for giving out information.” says Aditya.

All this added up to DU’s violation of section 4 under the RTI act.

Aditya says “Under one of the provisions of Section 4 all public authorities are supposed to maintain all their records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner that facilitates the Right to Information.”

After a year full of complications, in 2008, Central Information Commission (CIC) hauled up DU and its affiliated colleges for not implementing section 4 of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

A deadline of 14^th November 2008 was assigned to DU to update all of its online manuals, publish copies for public reference and make sure that all the colleges do the same by November 14.

“Since then, till now, we have had no concrete change. In January2007, I wrote several applications for non compliance of the CIC orders but to no avail” says Aditya.

In his crusade for the RTI he has been threatened to the extent of failing him in his University examinations. But, that till now, hasn’t deterred him from taking these steps.

On June 7^th of this year CIC along with Delhi University conducted a seminar for the Principals of various Delhi University colleges regarding the necessary implementation of the RTI act.

As we keep our fingers crossed, Aditya says, “Hope it works this time!”

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