SOL Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

News

Friend Kills DU Student Who Harassed Niece

By DU Beat November 28, 2019

The gruesome tale of the murder of a student of Delhi University (DU). Read more to find out.

Dhirendra Charan, a resident of Faridabad City was arrested by Faridabad Police on Monday. This arrest was related to the murder of Sandeep Vaishnav, a 25-year student, studying in School of Open Learning, Delhi University.

According to the police, Dhirendra had killed Sandeep after he found out that his niece was being harassed by Sandeep. Hence, with a feeling of vengeance, the accused invited the victim for some drinks and later killed him. Sandeep’s parents had also told the police that he had informed them about his meeting with Dhirendra before leaving. The body was spotted by some locals near an old factory at IMT Industrial Area in Faridabad.

In his confession, Dhirendra pleaded guilty and stated that after some drinks in his Santro car, he hit Dhirendra on his head with a baton, thus, knocking him unconscious. Following this, Dhirendra ran over the body with his car and then dumped the dead body near an old factory. The police under the command of CIA DLF Inspector Sajiv, nabbed the accused from Sahupura which is around 17 kilometres from the site of the murder. Dhirendra had fled to Sahupura after he killed Sandeep. When the police caught him, the accused was under the influence of alcohol.

The Faridabad Police was able to catch the accused within six hours after the body was spotted. The police have stated that Dhirendra has been charged with the appropriate IPC Sections for murder and further investigation is underway. Sandeep used to live with his parents in Faridabad.

Featured Image Credits: Hindustan Times

Aniket Singh Chauhan

DU SOL Panel to Check For Errors in Study Material

By Kartik Chauhan November 25, 2019

Upon the directions of the Honourable Delhi High Court, DU’s SOL has formed a subject-wise committee to review the study material distributed to students.

Since the beginning of this year’s odd-semester, the University of Delhi (DU) affiliated School of Open Learning (SOL) has faced many issues pertaining to admissions, curriculum and academics related fronts.

In the most recent turn of events, the administration of the School has appointed a subject-wise committee to review the study material distributed to students as a part of their curricula. This move comes into the picture after the college administration had been addressed with complaints by the students that the material provided to them by the School, for their classes, was of poor quality and not reliable in terms of its content.

Hence, upon the directions of the Honourable High Court of Delhi, a committee has been appointed by the institution to look into the matter. The court’s judgment had called for a review of the material. Earlier the court had also put a stay on the December exam to be held for over one lakh students currently enrolled at SOL. This year, the University converted SOL from the annual mode to the semester system and the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The administration has even formed a committee to address the grievances of the students enrolled under the CBCS. The committee will suggest remedies that need to be implemented.

Students alleged that the study material was full of errors and most of it had been prepared by simply bifurcating the material that had been prescribed in the previous system of annual mode. The Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, which had led these protests against the study material has also affirmed the presence of errors in the same.

Saurabh, a first year student of B.Com. at SOL says, “It is great that the SOL is finally taking steps to bring our studies back on track…things are still uncertain though.”

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Bhavya Pandey

DUB News

High Court Orders Stay on Semester Exams for SOL Students

By Maumil Mehraj November 23, 2019

After protests by School of Open Learning (SOL) students against cancelled classes and lack of study material, The Delhi High Court (HC) orders a stay on semester exams scheduled in December for SOL students.

SOL had decided to implement the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) from the academic session 2019-20. This change meant that SOL would move into the system which other Delhi University (DU) colleges follow, with exams at the end of every semester instead of annual exams. The hasty and ill-implemented nature of this decision led to several problems such as lack of study material, incomplete syllabus in most honours courses, and cancelled classes.

The initiative which may have been well-intended, was poorly implemented. On 17^th November 2019, SOL students came out to protest against the Vice Chancellor (VC) for the same. The protest was in the form of a funeral march for the VC. They had also held a protest outside the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) where they had tonsured their hair and sent it to the Union HRD minister, Delhi Education Minister, UGC, DU, and SOL authorities as a symbolic representation of how they had been orphaned by the authorities.

On 5^thNovember, four student activists had moved the court regarding this matter and their plea was accepted by the Delhi HC. The HC has ordered a stay on the December examinations in SOL by the University. The University will now hold both semester examinations at the end of the second semester, much like the method that was followed in SOL before the implementation of CBCS this academic session.

The students in a statement reported by the Times of India said, “Delhi High Court took DU on all the irregularities and violations evident in the manner in which CBCS has been implemented. Apart from pushing back of November-December exams, the University has to report to an annual nodal officer on the preparations made for the smooth running of the CBCS program in SOL.”

However, SOL director CS Dubey said that the University gave suggestions to the courts. A senior official goes on to say, “If IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) conducts exams of two semesters together, so can we. We have tried our best to make sure that SOL students should be at par with regular students. But some organisations wanted to disrupt that. There are many students who still want to give the exam in December this year.” They point out that exams in December would mean that will have to burden their resources, as different papers will have to be prepared and the number of days extended.

(With excerpts from the Times Of India)

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Prabhanu Kumar Das

[email protected]

SOL Students Protest Against Application of CBCS

By Kartik Chauhan November 18, 2019

On 17th November, Sunday, students of School of Open Learning (SOL) held a funeral march to symbolise the death of the varsity’s Vice Chancellor (VC) for them, and sent tonsured hair to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) to protest against the hasty implementation of the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) system in SOL.

On 17th November 2019, the students of DU’s School of Open Learning (SOL) took out a funeral march from the main gate of the Arts Faculty to the VC house, symbolising his death for the students of School of Open Learning (SOL). The students carried an effigy of the VC in a funeral procession, with slogans that read Annyay VC ki shavyatra (Unfair VC’s funeral procession) and SOL aur Regular mein degree ki samanta hee nahi, suvidhaon ki bhi do (Provide equal opportunities to regular courses and SOL, and not just equal degrees). The march was organised by the students and the KYS against the ‘bulldozed’implementation of the CBCS/ Semester system by DU for the students of SOL.

In a press statement released on Sunday, the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), mentioned, “Classes are suspended while more than half of the Honours courses remain incomplete; thus destroying the future of first-year SOL students, who have to appear for the CBCS examination later this November. Not only is the syllabus incomplete, the SOL students are yet to be provided with their complete study material. SOL is so unprepared that till now even the study material which has to be mandatorily provided to the students has not been made available to the majority. All this while the exams are due this very month. Also, even though lacs of students have taken admission this year in SOL, the study centres are almost empty because no information has been provided to them.”

The students of SOL had held a massive protest at the MHRD as well, where they had tonsured their hair and sent it to the Union HRD Minister, Delhi Education Minister, UGC, DU, and SOL authorities to assert that they felt orphaned, and were thus sending their tonsured hair as offerings of symbolic sacrifice. The students have made an appeal to the High Court of Delhi and had also protested against University Grants Commission (UGC), demanding its immediate intervention for the roll-back of the new CBCS curriculum and semester mode.

“The entire situation is chaos. Even though the idea of lessening the parity between regular colleges and distant learning is a good initiative, its implementation is terrible. We don’t know the syllabus, classes are empty and without the proper study material, the teachers don’t know what to teach in classes either. We’ve been completely abandoned by the authorities, despite continually reaching out. The University decided to introduce the CBCS system with no preparation and now we have to sit for semester exams that SOL wasn’t even prepared for. This is our future, and the University doesn’t seem to care at all,” Mrinal Yadav, a B.Com. student at SOL told DU Beat.

Expressing concern over this issue, several teachers have written to the University visitor, President Ram Nath Kovind, calling for the postponement of the exams and rolling back of the semester system for this year. “We have been observing the growing agitation of SOL students and the high handedness with which the University is circumventing to their objections regarding the manner in which the system has been introduced,” the letter to the President said. It was said to be signed by about 100 teachers. A review of the study materials provided, upon which distance education students mostly rely, showed that they were “full of errors” and not a product of academic protocols, they wrote in the letter. The teachers also raised issues about the way the new system was introduced, arguing that it was “bulldozed” through the University’s statutory bodies.

Feature Image Credits: KYS

Shreya Juyal

News

SOL to Have an Online Module for its Students

By DU Beat October 11, 2019

The School of Open Learning (SOL), Delhi University (DU) is all set to introduce its online teaching programme to aid students from 1st November.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has requested SOL to upload Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) for B.A. Programme, B.Com (Honours), B.Com Programme and B.A English (Honours) for the first semester.

This comes after the Governing Body made this decision in a prior meeting. The faculty of DU had been requested to submit the proposal for the same. It was earlier approved by the Executive Council of DU.

The motion of online courses was put forward by 22 universities, but UGC gave consent to only four which includes DU.

A “four-quadrant approach” has been suggested under UGC guidelines. This includes video and audio tutorials, open access web content, self-assessment techniques like MCQs, among others. Availability of reading material, in the form of e-books or PDFs, has also been suggested.

The University website provided instructions on making these modules on Tuesday, abiding with the guidelines which state to incorporate video lectures, classroom presentations, small movies, documentaries, fieldwork, virtual experimental learning, gaming, and short question and answers.

It also states that these must be in accordance with the government’s SWAYAM guidelines.

“We have developed a special system, which includes live streaming of lectures. Our teachers have already developed the lectures. We have also hired special tutors and interns,” said Mr CS Dubey, Director of SOL, as reported by Jagran Josh.

SOL is also planning to partially conduct its examination online. The institution had applied for approval to offer online courses in January this year, after the UGC Gazette Notification dated 4th July 2018, prescribing the regulations that shall apply to a university conducting open learning classes.

Feature Image credits: College Duniya

Stephen Mathew

s[email protected]

DU Student Fakes Own Kidnapping

By Kartik Chauhan October 9, 2019

Late 6th October night, a father received a purported video of his daughter on WhatsApp with her hands and legs tied with repeated cries of “mujhe chhor do”. A case was registered in the Adarsh Nagar police station.

A first-year correspondence student from Delhi University (DU) left her home in Adarsh Nagar on Sunday to attend classes at a DU college, but instead, she went to Purana Quila with her friends. She lied to her father over the phone stating she was outside her college. He demanded to show him the college building on a video call. She panicked and hung up after which she avoided her parents’ calls and spent the night ahead at her friend’s house.

Fearing that her parents would discover her bunking college, and scold her for the same, the 18-year-old orchestrated her own kidnapping. Late Sunday night, the father received a purported video of his daughter on WhatsApp with her hands and legs tied with repeated cries of “mujhe chhor do” (leave me). A case under IPC Section 365 (kidnapping) was registered in the Adarsh Nagar police station. The girl’s phone was put under technical surveillance, while teams were formed to look for her.

Her parents received a call from a passerby in Old Delhi’s Ballimaran area on Monday stating that their daughter was crying on the street. However, she had asked the man to call them up.

While questioning, she alleged to the police that she was kidnapped by four-five men on Sunday evening who took her to a jungle. “She couldn’t point out the location and said that at night when the men slept off, she escaped. When she was prodded a bit more, she confessed that she had made up the story,” said DCP (North West) Vijayanta Arya to The Indian Express. The woman made a video of herself in distress with hands and legs tied with the help of a friend.

A similar incident took place in Mumbai, March 2018 when a Class IX student faked his kidnapping and sexual assault after bunking to escape punishment from his parents and school.

Feature Image Credits: Metronation

Anandi Sen

DUB News

SOL Students Strictly Oppose the Semester System

By Sakshi Arora October 8, 2019

The students from the School of Open Learning (SOL) held a referendum against the implementation of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). Read on to know more.

The School of Open Learning (SOL) was established as a constituent college of the Delhi University (DU) in 1962, and is a pioneer in the field of distance education in India. It is one of the largest educational institutions in India, with around 5 lakh students.

SOL is a correspondence option offered to students all over the country by DU. It is a suitable alternative for people pursuing professional courses like Chartered Accountancy, Company Secretary etc. As these students require a degree but find it hard to go to college every day.

Till the last academic session, SOL had been following the annual mode of examinations. Until this July, when the University announced the introduction of CBCS, wherein exams take place each semester (every six months).

According to the students, SOL is not yet ready for the transitions. They have been protesting against this notion. The protest was led by the activists from the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS). “It should be known that implementing CBCS without discussion with the general students is not only arbitrary but is also an example of the administration’s carelessness. It should also be noted that till now more than 1.5 lakh students have already been admitted in annual mode and without any consultation, the semester system has been imposed,” read a statement issued by KYS.

As stated in a report by the Hindsutan Times, around 10,000 students participated in the aforementioned referendum, out of which 99% rejected the administration’s decision of implementing the CBCS system in SOL.

Some of the students had also indulged in a hunger strike in August. Earlier they wrote to the Ministry of Human Resource Development asking for assistance regarding the same. The students also claimed that CBCS study material has not been provided. Further, they said that no steps were taken to inform the students about the modifications in the curriculum.

Feature Image Credits: SOL Website

Avni Dhawan

DU Introduces 5 New Online Courses

By DU Beat October 4, 2019

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted approval to the University of Delhi (DU) to start five online courses, that would be made public from January 2020.

On 1st October 2019, the University of Delhi got the green light to conduct five online undergraduate courses by the UGC from January 2020 by the School of Open Learning (SoL). The courses provided by DU will be made made available for five subjects: B.A. Programme, B.A. (Hons.) English, B.A. (Hons.) Political Science, B.Com, and B. Com (Hons.).

An official from UGC spoke to NDTV and said that SOL will upload the learning materials on its website by November this year and start enrolling students in the program from January 2020. The courses will be made available for students in India as well as those abroad, and are being introduced to attract global students to study at the University of Delhi.

The letter of intent (LoI) was issued by the UGC to the university on 16th September 2019, as reported by DNA India.

“These courses actually belong to the School of Open Learning (SOL) but by January they will become online courses and will be available all around the world,” a senior official was quoted by a news daily.

“One of the officials of the Delhi University said that the proposal of online courses was put forward by 22 universities but UGC gave permission to only four universities out of which the Delhi University is one,” the report said.

Dr CS Dubey, Director of the Campus of SOL, said that the online courses will be available not just in India, but students from any country can take admission in the courses. Earlier, Dubey had also said that the DU is planning to conduct 30 per cent of its exams online in a phased manner.

Students too appreciated this. Sabaa, a second year B.A. (Hons.) English said, “I think it is a great opportunity being offered by the University. Not only is it good for integrating DU in the global educational structure, every year the cut-offs become impossible to achieve. This way, those who didn’t clear the cut-offs or are outstation students without the means to move to Delhi for studying, can also enrol in the University. “

Students can look for further details at du.ac.in, the university’s official website.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives.

Shreya Juyal

DU’s SOL Shifts to Shift 2.0

By Kartik Chauhan September 23, 2019

With approximately 1.5 lac students enrolling every year in the various courses provided by the University, Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL) aims to offer correspondence courses with no mandatory attendance against the regular courses of the University.

The continual shortage of classrooms, faculties, and other facilities has continued to hinder the progress of the University and its students. Only recently, after switching to the semester mode of education, SOL is set to conduct all classes on Saturdays as well.

Despite three weeks since the inception of this academic session, the administration has only been able to carry sixty percent of the total classes, as opposed to previous years, where the turnout corresponded to only 10-20% of students, the number exceeded to about 30-40% in 2019, making the situation difficult for the administration, as claimed by Professor Ramesh Bhardwaj, Officer on Special Duty in SOL.

Professor Bhardwaj further quoted that the shift in the system from an annual mode to a semester mode has contribued to the problems all the more. Where the annual mode classes would have begun in October or November, the new semester mode, adopted by the SOL has pushed the timeline much forward than planned, for the first-time the students of the SOL will be studying under the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS), which will bring their courses on par with regular curriculum.

However, right from the start of the course, regular protests are being held by members of KYS, and other student organisations, expressing their grievance against the authorities in different parts of the University. Classes are being cancelled regularly and many times at the last minute, causing wastage of student’s time & energy.

“We don’t mind the CBCS system being implemented, but they [administration] are clearly not prepared for it,” says Aarti Khush Wahab, a first-year student at SOL.

The administration has further announced the dates for the examination to be in the first week of November, what with the inconsistent classes and inadequate study material, worsening the situation for the students.

In response to issues mentioned above, the administration plans to hold classes in double shifts, Professor Bhardwaj said. Currently there are about 30 centres alloted to SOL for holding classes, the administration requires 70 more in near future. The step seems promising but its effectiveness seems to be a big question.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Faizan Salik