DU’s batch of 2022-23 had a roller-coaster ride to college

The students faced more than a year of virtual classes, two separate board exams in Class 12 and Delhi University enrolling students on the basis of a common university entrance test (CUET)

It started with the Covid-19 pandemic. The country shut down in March 2020, and started opening gradually over the next few months. Vansh, 17, was fresh off his Class 10 board exams, and was looking forward to some time off before burying himself in his books for the all-important final two years of school. However, the pandemic put paid to any vacation plans -- he was forced to isolate with his family even as the world he knew was rapidly changing.

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) examination was cancelled at various centres causing inconvenience to thousands of students. (HT Photo)

From there, things only went downhill.

More than a year of virtual classes, two separate board exams in Class 12, Delhi University enrolling students on the basis of a common university entrance test (CUET) for the first time, chaos at exam centres, uncertainties over the admission process -- and waves of the pandemic raging, subsiding and raging again in the background -- the 2022 batch of Class 12 students has seen it all.

As they get ready to begin their college lives, Vansh’s experience is an illustration of the ups and downs of two roller-coaster years, and how a batch of students is unlikely to have ever faced such turbulence.

Angst and anxiety“At first, virtual classes were fun as the experience was something new, and we didn’t have to wake up early in the morning to go to school,” said Vansh, a Delhi resident who was studying at a private Central Board of Secondary Education Board (CBSE)-affiliated school. “Later, they became monotonous and boring. Many of us even took them lightly, concentrating more on tuition classes.”

As the novelty of virtual classes evaporated, Vansh started longing for physical contact with his friends.

“Many months went by before I hung out with my friends. It wasn’t easy. We would sometimes meet in the evening, while observing social distance, but it couldn’t match the fun we had during the long hours at school.”

When school opened in hybrid mode in July 2021, Vansh was ecstatic -- he was finally getting to meet his friends again. However, many of his classmates did not come back to school -- some had family members vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus, while others were still dealing with the after-effects of the disease.

But the teenager soon had other, more pressing worries. Word started spreading that his batch may have to take two sets of board exams. Days later, on July 5, 2021, CBSE confirmed the rumours. The board was going to conduct two sets of board exams to prepare for any “unprecedented situation” that could arise because of the pandemic -- one between November and December that year, while the other would between March and April 2022.

“We were told that we will have to take two sets of board exams -- one would have multiple choice questions and the other would have subjective papers. The syllabus was divided in two parts. At that point, we didn’t know how the marking would be and our primary concern was to secure the maximum marks to get into Delhi University. We were scared because we knew how high the cut-offs of DU colleges had been over the last few years,” the 17-year-old Vansh said.

A third set of examsVansh and his batch mates sat for the first set of board exams, and were preparing for the second set when they were faced with another surprise -- rather than admitting students on the basis of their Class 12 performance, 45 central universities including DU would now enrol students only on the basis of CUET, which would be conducted by the National Testing Agency in March.

Though CUET was first conducted in 2010 for admission to seven central universities for 1,500 seats across undergraduate, postgraduate and integrated courses, and by the academic year 2021-22, expanded to five more varsities, from the starting 2022-23 academic year, it was made mandatory for the 45 central universities across the country.

“Suddenly, we were told that our Class 12 marks won’t matter, and we will have to take an entrance test based on which we’ll get admission to central universities. It came as a shock because, growing up, all we ever heard was that we have to score very well in Class 12 to be able to get into DU, and we were mentally prepared to study accordingly,” Vansh said.

“It almost felt like being cheated . The marks in our board exams didn’t matter -- but we still had to study the whole of the Class 12 syllabus for CUET, which basically meant that we had to prepare three times – twice for the two board exams, and once for CUET,” he added.

After navigating the maze of contradictory information given out ahead of CUET, Vansh and his fellow students had another ambush in store for them – the exams, set to be conducted across phases in July and August, were marred with technical glitches.

A senior NTA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “To ensure smooth and glitch-free conduct of examinations, some centres were changed due to technical issues.”

On the ground, however, there were reports of chaos from centres across the country. And it would only get worse.

For, if in July exam centres were suddenly changed, in August the exams were simply postponed. “My papers were originally scheduled for August 7 and 10, but one day before the first exam, we were told that the exam has been postponed to August 21 and 23 due to technical glitches,” Vansh said.

Admission tangleAfter the CUET results were declared in September, students such as Vansh complained of not being able to access the DU portal to register their choice of course and college preferences. This was a short-lived problem though -- the glitch was fixed the next day -- and now began the saga of navigating DU’s admission process.

University officials have repeatedly said that they made the mechanism transparent and easy for students to understand. Dean of admissions, Haneet Gandhi, said, “DU has been very transparent with students. Time and again, we asked students to choose as many preferences and carefully so. They were made aware of the ranks, number of seats in courses and particular colleges. Therefore, keeping all the considerations in mind, students could choose their preferences.”

However, students maintain that they were left clueless at various stages and the complexities of the system were not explained properly.

On October 14, when DU released a list of simulated ranks -- a mock allotment result based on the students’ CUET scores based on their course and college preferences, allowing candidates to alter their choices -- that showed students how likely they were to get the college and course of their choice.

“This was the first time such simulated ranks were used. We had no idea if the scores we got were good or bad. It was all guesswork for us. We couldn’t be sure whether what we were choosing was correct. It was a huge risk for us,” Vansh said.

Four days later, on October 19, the first list of allocations was declared, and while 5,000 candidates got their first preference of course and college, nearly 70,000 were unsure where they would end up. As things stand, around 35,000 students have employed the “upgrade” option, which allows them to improve their course-college preference, and are now waiting for the second allotment list, scheduled to be out on October 30.

“What an end to the year,” said Vansh, who has accepted his allocated seat studying B.Com (Hons) in a North Campus college. “The past is the past; at least next year, DU aspirants now have a reference of what they can expect.”