Good evening cool Dudes, says varsity

In the time of increasing cut-offs when it comes to admitting the best students, the evening colleges of Delhi University (DU) are fast catching up with their daytime counterparts.

In the time of increasing cut-offs when it comes to admitting the best students, the evening colleges of Delhi University (DU) are fast catching up with their daytime counterparts.

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Increasingly, more evening colleges are holding classes from 2.30 pm or earlier, so 'evening' is merely a tag. With this, the perception that evening colleges of DU are only meant for those with low marks is shifting.

"Our cut-off marks are barely 3-4 per cent lower than those of the morning colleges," said Deepak Malhotra, principal, Dyal Singh College (Evening). He admitted that even though the cut-offs for evening colleges are always lower than the morning colleges, the college easily fills up its seats by the second list for most courses.

"Such a small margin in percentage does not show any remarkable difference in the aptitude of a student. DU students, be it from any college, are equally good," he added.

The perception that evening colleges are a cut below the others and the quality of education is poor is changing, said teachers.

"The teachers in the evening colleges go through the same recruitment process set by the university as those in the day colleges and are as qualified as those in any other DU college. We have the same classrooms, same facilities and the almost similar cut-offs. The only difference is the time," said SP Aggarwal, principal, Deshbandhu College (Evening).

Students, too, second this claim. "Our teachers are dedicated and we have as many opportunities available to us as our friends in other colleges. Contrary to popular belief, evening colleges also offer all kinds of extra-curricular activities. Our theatre club is very active," said Vinita Kalidhar, a second-year student of English (Honours) at Dyal Singh College (Evening).

The performance of the students has also helped the slow dissolution of the stigma. "Many of our students of Urdu and Persian have topped the university, and our Commerce students have figured in the university top 10 list. This year, our cut-offs for Commerce will be as high as 83-84 per cent," said SA Hamideen, principal, Zakir Husain College (Evening).

The city's popular evening colleges offer all the usual Arts and Commerce courses such as English (Honours), BCom (Honours) and Political Science (Honours). Clearly, these colleges aren't seen as easy gateways into the varsity anymore.