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Moderation row rears it’s ugly head, again

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Ensuing soon after the declaration of the Semester 1 results by Delhi University for their course, was the row over the preternaturally high scores that the students had managed to achieve this time around, raising question marks over the veracity of these scores and their value.

In a recent development, teachers from the Department of Economics and the Department of Germanic and Romance studies have filed protests in the office of the Controller of Examinations against these apparently bloated results. The results in the Economics (H) exam went up to as high as 99% and in the Germanic and Romance studies exams to 96.6% and 86.6% in the respective papers

“We strongly protest against this un-academic way of moderating results that has diluted academic standards and has made a mockery of the evaluation process undertaken seriously and sincerely by us,” the letter reads.

These reports have been confirmed by Saikat Ghosh, DUTA Executive Member who goes onto explain that the crux of the problem with these results lies that they have been moderated to such an extent that they have not been deemed correct and thus is in fact detrimental to the faith placed in the result evaluation procedure of DU.

He expounds that usually, the moderation as a process is a meticulous and intricate one, which involves the tabulation of marks in the primary step of the evaluation ladder which is followed up with identification of the ‘border- line’ cases. Once the red- ink separates these results from the hordes of the other scores, the marks that these particular exam- takers had secured in their Internal Assessments is taken into account and if the student is found worthy of a couple or more of grace marks, then they do get added on to his or her result. It is not a blanket formula, applied to all and sundry, something that the results this semester end seem to contradict. Also the principle for moderation has to be adopted by the Academic Council of the University of Delhi and only then is credence accorded to it.

As Mr. Ghosh informs us, the issue with the moderations this time has been that the tabulation had never been done and the teachers seem to have been told to moderate results freely by the Controller of Examinations, Dr. Jaggi, who in turn has passed the buck onto the Vice- Chancellor saying that the order had indeed come from higher quarters. “We have ample reason to believe that the results have been fudged” asserts Mr. Ghosh.

The DUTA has demanded an impartial probe into this matter and will adopt a resolution regarding the same in its General Body meeting on 31 January, 2012.

 

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Lady Shri Ram College for Women

New semester disorders annual-mode timetables in LSR

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Post the completion of the first semester in Delhi University, while opinions remain ambiguous regarding its fate as a successful attempt or tepid reform, the unwarranted difficulties spawned by it seem to emerge with discouraging regularity.

 

 

The DU time (table) warp. PHOTOGRAPH: Sapna Mathur

The introduction of new timetables at the beginning of a semester, while an integral feature of the system, however, has been the source of much inconvenience for the large percentage of the student body that still functions according to the annual calendar. Due to the re-structuring of teachers and syllabus according to the University-specified semester modules, annual students in LSR now find themselves flummoxed at having to change their timetables and teachers as an unpleasant side-effect.

“As if it wasn’t bad enough that they compartmentalized texts into capsules to be swallowed, this sudden switching of teachers and schedules is especially jarring as it strips our subject of consistency”, says a second-year English student of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, who wishes to remain anonymous.

Second and third year students of arts and text-intensive courses, including English, History, and Political Science are perhaps not wrong in their resentment at having this arbitrary measure inflicted upon them, especially since the benefits of the semester system (most notably, that of the uncharacteristically high marks) elude them. 

Teachers, too, while sympathetic with the plight of the affected student body and in concurrence with the disjointed quality it imparts to the flow of study, have expressed inability to rectify the situation. Apart from the sudden mid-year changes for the annual students, it has also resulted in further pressure on Heads of academic departments to re-structure the schedules for all three years.

The general outcry appears to be that the official stance of the University may be touting the success of the semester system, but in its zeal to reform and revolutionize the system of education, the DU administration seems to have lost focus on the academic well-being of the annual students.

 

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News

DU declares results for science courses: Maths topper scores 98%

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After the brouhaha over the fairytale Economics result, Delhi University has now declared the first year semester results of three major Science streams. Students have, in general, performed commendably in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. However, there is an obvious disappointment on the part of students over no one achieving a 99 as expections had sky-rocketed following the Economics scores.

The Mathematics results were declared on 31st December, while those of Physics and Chemistry were declared on the 2nd day of the new year. The colleges that have performed best overall are Hans Raj, Hindu, Miranda House, St. Stephen’s and Maitreyi.

A student of Hans Raj College has topped Physics honours with a 92%, with the overall result of Hans Raj itself being the best. Close contenders were Hindu College, followed by St. Stephen’s and Miranda House.

For Chemistry, the highest score is again a 92%, obtained by a student of Hindu College. The top colleges for Chemistry are Hindu, Hans Raj and Miranda with only Sri Venkateswara in South Campus that has managed to come close. Mathematics Honours saw a highest score of 98%, a New Year’s Eve delight for the Maths departments across DU that have been struggling to improve results over the past two years. The topper belongs to Lady Sri Ram College, however the best overall result was yet again bagged by Hans Raj College.

The subject saw a remarkably good set of marks being obtained by South Campus students as well, with JMC, Gargi and Sri Venkateswara in the lead. While a considerable number of students have performed exceedingly well in these subjects, there are also substantial number who would be required to take some exams again.

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Campus Central

DU does a CBSE, three Economics students score 99%

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Just when you thought The Great Indian Education System couldn’t spring any more surprises, out comes DU’s first semester results. If 100% cut-offs for admissions raised eyebrows, these results are a whole new bolt from the blue. While the highest for English (Honours) was a never-heard-of-before 78%, three Economics (Honours) students top scored with a staggering 99 per cent.

Is this the dawn of a whole new era of the super-geeks in DU, or a people-pleasing attempt by the University board to show how well the semester system does for its students?

Ms Nandini, an Economics teacher from Miranda House certainly believes it is the latter, “It’s [99 per cent in Eco] absolutely shocking! These were not multiple choice type papers. The marks don’t show what actually went on in the classrooms, the kind of pressures on us. Teachers had specific instructions not to fail anyone. Internal assessment records had to be submitted before the terms ended! All this is just an attempt by the University to prove the efficacy of the semester system to everyone. The students are happy, but the University is only belittling the [Honours] degree! Oxford, other foreign schools won’t recognize us anymore!”

Mr. Krishan Kumar, another Economics teacher from Sri Venkateswara College, seemed less appalled, “This semester had the scoring papers – Maths, Statistics and Principles of Economics. The explanatory technical papers only begin the third semester onwards. Besides, though the highest score may be this much, number of first divisions in Maths is quite low.”

As for the students, several echo similar viewpoints. However, the overall mood of the community is one of gross disbelief.

Professors from colleges including SRCC, Miranda House and St Stephens are now even considering filing RTI applications to review the answer sheets of students who obtained the highest scores. Click here for the full story

Click here  for exclusive interviews of the Economics Honours toppers

Here are some of the student responses as expressed on Facebook…

Yes DU, we get it! The semester system is ‘perfect’! You don’t have to go CBSE to prove it

99% Ok…this aint the cut off for Srcc…but first sem’s highest score in eco(hons)…

DU GIVING CBSE TOPPERS A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY….!!!

?99 highest in eco. 80 and 90 percent distributed like langar

Dear DU,
I hope you’re also planning on being Santa in June.
Sincerely, 3rd year student who just got a half-hour lecture from her parents.

Ankita Dhanda
[email protected]  

 

 

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Uncategorized

DU To Introduce The Semester System At The Undergraduate Level

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Despite repeated protests from many members   the University faculty, the semester system will mark its beginning from the next academic year i.e. 2010-11. Empowered Committee for the Implementation of Semester System (ECIS) drafted a proposal inviting suggestions and objections from students and the faculty members of the university by placing it on the website.
The ECIS has outlined each semester to be a 19-week affair with the first one starting from July till December and the second one from January till the last day of the academic year i.e May 14.
A uniform academic calendar as per which both the semesters will consist of 15 weeks of teaching, two weeks of exams, a week each of preparatory holidays for examinations and mid-semester breaks.
The present mid-term examination and final examination will be replaced

by semester-end examinations.  There will be centralized time-bound

marking . Each course shall have a certain number of credits assigned to it depending upon its lecture, tutorial and Practical contact hours in a week. Assignments, both written ones and presentations, will be an integral part of every paper. The number of assignments, however, will be reduced. The Postgraduate admissions however, have also seen a change from its usual criteria. As a general policy, postgraduate departments will be required to admit 50% of their students from the Honours courses on the basis of marks.  For the other 50% seats, there will be entrance examination. Now students have an option to pursue Master’s even in a ‘Minor’ subject after they clear the entrance examination.

All the undergraduate courses are deemed to have four papers per semester, thus taking  the toll to 24 papers in 6 semesters. The Honours Programme has seen a shift from its regular course. From its earlier system of major and elective subjects minor subjects will now be included. Out of these 24 papers, the ‘Major’ courses would consist of  at least 14 subjects while 3 to 4 of them will be dedicated to the elective subjects including one mandatory paper each, in language and computational techniques. The new scheme also proposes an extra compulsory course in Environmental Studies.

Additionally, the proposal put up on the Delhi University website (www.du.ac.in) declared that as per a survey conducted amongst post graduate students , it was discovered that they would  have liked to study some other subjects along with their Honours course. This however seems to be on the verge of cancellation in order to avoid an overload on the students.

The entire process will be finalized by March, as the absolute document is set before the Academic Council by January 2010.

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News

DUTA Dharna: The First Of Many To Come?

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Following the Delhi University Teachers’ Association’s decision to protest against the implementation of the semester system in its last general body meeting earlier this month, A dharna was held outside the vice chancellor’s office on Friday to protest against the same.

Thursday had witnessed a similar scene with teachers protesting and sloganeering in their respective colleges. An open house debate had been organized in some colleges to educate students about the implications the semester system has for them.

Friday’s dharna witnessed representation from most Delhi University colleges. The Vice Chancellor however remained unavailable for comment. It was later discovered that Professor Pental was not in his office at the time of the dharna in spite of prior notification. By adjusting the students’ time – table, teachers made it a point that classes would not be disrupted.

This decision to implement the semester system comes at a time when many colleges of the University are reeling from the moderation of the internal assessment marks. As teachers pointed out at the Dharna, the university which is still trying to tackle the flaws of the recently introduced internal system, is certainly in no position to adopt the semester system.

The gathered teachers also expressed skepticism at the vice chancellor’s earlier conciliatory proposition of engaging in “extensive dialogue” with the staff as a similar promise had been made last year but to no avail. In the absence of any further communication from the VC regarding this issue, the DUTA plans to hold more such dharnas .

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DUTA Demands Democracy

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Formalise opposition to the semester system

In a general body meeting held last Tuesday, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association formally announced their opposition to the semester system. The Teachers body has reached a unanimous decision and expressed dissatisfaction at not only the consequences this system would have on the education system of the country but also the undemocratic way in which it is being implemented. Besides, the vice chancellor’s open addressal, very little communication has been made to the teachers regarding this issue. The irony of the matter is that within a month of introducing the system, Professor Pental’s tenure as the vice chancellor of the university shall terminate, leaving his successor with the onus of implementing the system and tackling the numerous problems that DUTA feels are sure to arise out of it.

Says DUTA Secretary ,DR. Dinesh Adlakha, on the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting. “We shall hold dharnas at the colleges and also a massive dharna at the VC’s office. Also we would take help of our students in opposing this change as this is going to affect them the most. We seek to make the civil society at large aware of the problems of the student with the proposed change.

Let me make it very clear that the teachers’ workload or their vacations will not be affected at all by this change to the semester system. Our vacations also are not going to be affected in any way. So the fight is not for the vacations but the inherent problems of the semester system in big universities like Delhi where the number of students is so large that the system cannot work at all. This internal assessment system at colleges is an example to strengthen our argument.

This attempt of the UGC to have a uniform calendar in the central universities all over the country otherwise also is a retrograde step as the weather and climatic conditions in this country are extreme in different parts of the country. Such a step is going to be counter productive.”

Considering the urgency of the matter, it is projected that the dharnas would commence in the month of August itself.  Being proposed on the recommendations of the knowledge commission , students and teachers alike have expressed skepticism at the system’s supposed success in homogenizing  education within Delhi university .This theory is however debunked if one considers the UGC and the NKC ‘s  recommendation of accreditation of colleges.

A comprehensive but detailed critique, countering the Vice Chancellor’s reasons for implementing this semester system has been made available by the association. Turn to page three for a synopsis of this report.

In an unprecedented move the Vice-Chancellor is attempting to introduce a major systemic change through the semester system at the under-graduate level without even so much as a committee of the University of Delhi having deliberated upon the issue. Obviously, he has precluded any scope of open debate on the subject. It is an issue with far reaching implications for the entire university system involving evaluation system, course structures and their contents, pedagogy, and the academic calendar including vacations. It is remarkable that the proposed change is being attempted to be introduced without even a semblance of framework for it. The proposal has come from outside the university in the context of globalization of higher education and the Vice-Chancellor is facilitating its mindless application. He has taken an arbitrary decision to implement it from 2010. It is meant to integrate the University of Delhi within the global market economy.

(opening statement of DUTA’s report on the semester system)

Semester system: An overview

Evaluation System and its implications

The switch over to the semester system would necessitate two set of examinations being conducted in the year, one in November -December , the other in April. If the examination were to be conducted by the university, it would be totally chaotic given the university’s inability to declare results even of a single annual examination on time; results are never ready before the reopening of the university after the summer break.

If the examination is to be conducted by the colleges themselves, the system would be replete with dangerous consequences for the evaluation system and the consequent gradation of colleges. It would undermine uniformity in the evaluation system and thereby introduce variation in the value of degrees so obtained by students. Inherent within the college evaluation system is the gradual gradation of colleges into a multi-tier system, which has been the agenda of privatization of higher education for more than two decades. The teachers’ movement has been consistently resisting this move.

Furthermore, the system of house examinations would have to go, thus students lose out on practice and feedback that they get out of the existing internal system.

Implications for Courses of Study

If the semester system were to be applied to the existing course structures, they would have to be artificially bifurcated into two halves, which is neither viable nor desirable. Contradictory to the idea being floated by the V.C, the exam load per session would hardly reduce, either for students or for the teaching faculty. To finish the 100 mark papers of 5 units per semester  the frequency of lectures conducted will have to be  doubled as well.

Many professors feel that this would adversely impact learning / teaching processes besides creating serious pedagogical problems. It would make it extremely difficult to impart/study fundamentals of any subject under the system of double examination pressure. It would also undermine the entire teaching system at the undergraduate level.

If new course structures and content are to be devised in a meaningful manner, a gigantic effort involving hundreds of courses of study and dozens of disciplines would be required.

Semester System and Interdisciplinary Approach

The Vice-Chancellor’s statement that the semester system would encourage interdisciplinary studies is to substitute the evaluation system for the course structures and their content. Interdisciplinary approach does not follow as a necessary corollary of the semester system. Nor are interdisciplinary and annual examinations necessarily mutually exclusive. Interdisciplinarity depends upon content of courses and their structures. If required it can easily be provided under  the existing annual exam system.

Also as Mrs. Harriet Raghunathan , an English  professor, at Jesus and Mary college points out in her detailed analysis of the semester system, BA students have plenty of interdisciplinarity in their 5 new concurrent courses or their B.A. programme foundation and application courses all of which run for a full year.

For whom is the system being made globally viable?

It has been suggested by the Vice-Chancellor that through global compatibility, the semester system would lead to free movement of students, both Indian and foreign. Such a move would enable foreign students, to avail of a semester of study at much lower costs in India while given the prohibitive cost of education abroad, it would be exceedingly difficult for Indian students to take advantage of the same. Furthermore, several European countries do not have the semester system.

It is also felt that at the behest of external agencies if the system is applied to Delhi University, it shall not be very conducive to the academic growth unlike the cited examples of the  post-graduate courses/universities or single institutes where student-teacher ratio is  higher. This would lead to gradual erosion of the existing system in the university. It would mean back door entry for autonomous colleges. It would merely facilitate the coming and functioning of foreign private universities in India, even segregating the correspondence courses from the main stream of Delhi University. There is a more pressing urgency to strengthening and optimizing existing structures before introducing any systemic changes.

(This article has been written on the basis of DUTA’s  report titled”

Critique of the Vice-Chancellor’s proposal on the Semester System” and invaluable excerpts provided by Mrs. Harriet Raghunathan, Reader, Jesus and Mary college)

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Uncategorized

SEMESTER SYSTEM: To be or not to be?

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Delhi University has made life easy. All you need to do is study as final exams approach. It worked for the lazy lot, but the university seems to be heading towards a revision of plans, with talks of introducing the semester system post recommendations made by the UGC and NKC . This however has generated mixed reactions.

The Vice Chancellor in an online addressal to members of the university elaborated the rationale behind this system. Enlisting the numerous benefits, Professor Pental said that introduction of the system would inculcate better paced understanding of the subject and more focused classroom interaction. Two semester examinations would not only inculcate regular study habits among students but also eventually halve their workload, as they’d only have to prepare half of the syllabus that is presently prepared for the final examination.

Introducing this system also implies greater stress on interdisciplinary courses. While some professors and students feel it would be compartmentalizing knowledge and discouraging in depth study of any course, the upside is that undergraduate students would be imbibed with relevant knowledge outside the boundaries of their primary subject..

The supporters of this system also insist that by introducing the concept of credits, students can avail the use of short term study abroad programmes that would give them the opportunity to gain greater inter university exposure, both at the national and international level.

Introducing the semester system at an undergraduate level in Delhi University would automatically synchronise it with the prevailing system of examination at the post graduate level as well as that with the few courses already following it such as bbs and journalism.

This is not to say the system doesn’t have its detractors. At a dharna held outside the VC’s office this June, the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation had expressed concern over the excessive academic demands of the system , saying that it could take away from the students’ social and extra curricular activities.

Those against the implementation of the system also point out that it would be detrimental to the interests of teachers because the short period of a semester would hinder them from getting leave both for medical reasons and for research work. In such a situation a compromise either with the research work or the students’ syllabus would be inevitable. Conducting and evaluating two examinations a year would increase their workload immensely.

Many members of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association feel that maybe the varsity is not logistically enabled for such a transition and needs to do a lot of research before implementing it. As a teacher from Hans Raj puts it, “In principle, I think it’s a great idea. It’s a worldwide system and it would make the course more rigorous. I just hope that in our university, with so many colleges included, the authorities find the right way to implement it”. What teachers are adamant on is that the results should be declared sooner and the class hours should not be reduced.

The AIDSO had earlier insinuated that the semester system was an inseparable part of those recommendations of the Knowledge Commission, which were conducive to globalisation and liberalisation policies as it made education a salable commodity while simultaneously adapting the system to suit the market economy. They feel that in the name of imparting quality education the character building aspect of the process would be destroyed merely making education a saleable product.

Students are keen on this change but confused about its implications. A student from Hindu college says “This would leave me with no time for ECA and I can’t promise so much regularity.” On the other hand, a student from SRCC approves of it saying ‘It would make our study pattern more flexible, making it parallel to other universities in and around India and allowing movement across universities.”

The students already in colleges with the semester system have something else to say. According to a student pursuing B.Tech (IT) from Kurukshetra University, “The system is good but there’s the pressure of exams coming up every 6 months after which new subjects are introduced. At the end of the day, you don’t feel satisfied with the amount of time you are able to give to each subject”. Another student from IP college feels that “it gives us two chances in a year to improve on our own marks and we don’t have to study as many units as other colleges in one go”.

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