Semesters may defeat the purpose of OBC reservation

DU teachers have been pointing at the lack of infrastructure ever since 54% seats were reserved for OBC students in the university. Most colleges have been struggling to fit in students in classrooms both physically and metaphorically.

DU teachers have been pointing at the lack of infrastructure ever since 54% seats were reserved for OBC students in the university. Most colleges have been struggling to fit in students in classrooms both physically and metaphorically.

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Teachers feel that if the situation was bad then, it is going to be worse with the proposed semester system coming in force in all courses from July.

For a majority of the reserved students who come from backward areas, getting admission in a college is a struggle and now with the semester system they will be further burdened.

“The whole concept of semester system is elitist. Many students take admission on the basis of different quotas till as late as August. Since most of them do not come from public schools, they take a lot of time adjust. How can they sit for an examination in November?” asked Debjani Sengupta, who teaches English in IP College.

“On one hand the government talks about inclusiveness, on the other it caters to an exclusive group of public students as the reserved category students cannot cope with the pressure of an examination two months into the course,” she added.

Vijay Singh, associate professor of history in Satyawati College (Morning) said, “Even though DU has inducted a new social strata, the semester system will hardly give them time to build their foundation.”

He also pointed out at another problem plaguing DU since long: the lack of books in Hindi. “We cater to a large number of students from Hindi medium and there aren’t enough books which have been translated from English to Hindi,” he said.