Correspondence Students’ Rights’
Campaign
Conveners: Prithvi-7838949583,
Shahnawaz-9015450101
Date:
21.01.2013
To,
The Vice-Chancellor,
University of Delhi,
MEMORANDUM
Appeal for the redressal of S.O.L. students’ grievances
Respected Sir,
We, the students of the School of
Open Learning (SOL), took out a protest rally today so as to spread awareness,
and to register our protest against gross discrimination as well as the grave
difficulties we face as students of Delhi University. We urge upon your office to take cognizance
of our grievances and take steps to address them in the earnest.
Contrary to popular conception, the
distance learning mode (SOL) student community does not consist primarily of
those who wish to pursue studies part-time. In fact a majority of students
studying through the distance learning mode consists of those who wish to study
in regular colleges but are forced to enroll in the correspondence mode because
we do not get admission in such colleges. Most of us end up enrolling in SOL
because we cannot get past the outrageously high cut-offs of the regular colleges.
In such a situation, it is the duty of the University to gradually try and
ensure that an increasing number such students are properly incorporated in
regular courses, but unfortunately, the policies of the University have not
been moving in this direction at all. As a result, there is a tendency towards
informalization of education for an increasing number of students. The recent structural
reforms by the University administration have further accentuated this trend.
School of Open Learning is
running in an extremely informal and ad-hoc manner. Its sorry state of affairs
is apparent from the statement given to Hindustan Times on January 19, 2013 by
your own office, pointing to the numerous irregularities afflicting the School.
The personal contact program has been almost ineffective because the classes
are few and irregular. The quality of teaching is utterly wanting. Moreover,
despite the fact that the number of students in the School is much larger than
regular colleges, the number of courses offered to us is too few. For example
even such common courses like B.A. Honors in History, Sociology etc. are not
made available to us. The study material is outdated and is highly rote-oriented.
The Library facility too is utterly inadequate.
Furthermore, the office staff is
careless with work as a result of which mistakes are often made in data entry—practice
which leads to a great deal of discomfiture for us. For instance, last year due
to data entry mistakes the incumbent batch had to undergo a number of hardships
as a very large of students were given wrong subject option by the staff.
Shockingly, instead of making corrections, the staff advised these students to
drop a year! The results too are often published late, causing many students to
miss out the dead line for admissions to higher courses. Moreover, there is no
provision for extra-curricular activities like sports, theatre etc. for SOL
students. For students desirous of pursuing post graduation courses through SOL
too few seats are available. We are absolutely clueless as to why there should
be a cut-off/elimination process in the distance learning mode which was introduced
to make quality education available to the broadest possible masses. Unfortunately,
the cut-off system and competitive exams are on for all MA courses now.
We are also vexed by the humiliating
treatment meted to us by the University administration. The general behavior of
the University staff towards us is extremely insulting. Moreover, at a time
when there is so much talk about abolishing discriminatory treatment toward
women it is incomprehensible as to why there are separate centers for boys and
girls. We protest against the retrograde and misogynist presumption that boys
and girls must study separately.
We are much alarmed by the recent
reform measures announced by the University as they threaten to further
aggravate the already existing gulf between the regular and distance learning
students. We suspect that the semester system, four year bachelor course etc.,
which are being feted as measures that would increase the worth of the regular
courses, would further decrease the value of distance learning courses that are
already considered redundant and of lower quality. It is clear that the
interests of SOL students, who far outnumber the regular students of the University,
appear very low in the list of priorities set by the university. We protest
against this elitist bias on part of the University administration which plans
all its reforms from the point of view of the regular students only.
We believe that it is unjust on
part of the University to condemn the majority of its students to informal
education (Distance learning mode). The attitude of the University
administration is clearly borne out by the statement given by the VC’s office to
Hindustan Times on 19 January 2013, stating that the ‘future of education lines
in correspondence studies.’ This is particularly disturbing because the
majority of the students who are forced to pursue studies through the distance
learning mode belong to the poorer sections of the society. We condemn this
elitist bias of the University and demand the University to reformulate its
policies and enshrine the principle of bringing an ever increasing number of
students within the net of regular courses as its guiding principle. We request
you to take apt measures as soon as possible, failing which we would be forced
to take recourse to other means of protest available to us.
Our demands:
1. Build 80 new colleges to
accommodate all distance learning students in regular courses.
2. Accommodate all SOL students desirous
of pursuing education through regular courses in regular colleges through the
“sitting” system, till the time new colleges are built.
3. Give library facilities,
access to ECA, sports etc, at par with the regular students, to all SOL
students accommodated in the regular colleges.
4. Ensure bus pass facility to
all SOL students for all routes. University authority must write to DTC to ensure the same.
5. Till the time SOL students are
given admissions in regular colleges, improve the quality and frequency of
Personal Contact Program and ensure that all students are given high quality
study material.
6. Admission process of no
post-graduation course should be completed before the publishing of SOL
results.
7. The university administration
must address the problems of all SOL students of the incumbent batch who stand
to lose a year due to the course data entry mistakes of the university staff.
The staff responsible for these mistakes must be reprimanded.
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