DU second phase of OBE begins today; 2,000 students expected to take exam on Day 1

Around 12,780 undergraduate and postgraduate students are expected to appear in these exams between September 14 and October 1

The Delhi University (DU) will start conducting the second phase of open book exams (OBE) in blended mode --both online and offline ---from Monday. Around 12,780 undergraduate and postgraduate students are expected to appear in these exams between September 14 and October 1.

Of the 12,780 registered students,10,780 are from the School of Open Learning (SoL) and around 2,000 are those enrolled in colleges and Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board. (Representational Image)

According to the DU’s officiating dean (examination) D S Rawat, of the 12,780 registered students,10,780 are from the School of Open Learning (SoL) and around 2,000 are those enrolled in colleges and Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB). “While 9,467 students will take the exam in online mode, only 3,313 have chosen to appear physically. Regular students and those enrolled with the NCWEB will visit their respective colleges and departments to appear in the exams physically. The SoL students have been allotted centres located in different areas across the city,” he said.

DU is conducting second phase of the open-book exams for those final year undergraduate and postgraduate students who could not appear in the first phase held online between August 10 and 31. This time, they have been given the option to either write the exam online or visit the university’s examination centres to take the tests.

Students who failed to upload/submit scanned images of the answer scripts during the first phase of exams, persons with disability (PWD) students and those who wish to improve their score in select exams can also sit for the second phase of exams.

According to the University’s examination branch, as many as 253,677 final year undergraduate and postgraduate students were to appear in the OBE exams this year. Of them, around 212,256 had appeared in the first phase of OBE, as per the data submitted by the university in the Delhi high court on August 26.

The University’s examination department had, last week, issued a detailed advisory to all the colleges and asked them to be ready with thermal scanners, sanitisers and masks before the exams commence. At the colleges or examination centres, students will be asked to submit an undertaking declaring themselves free of any symptom of Covid-19. They have been asked to carry their own paper sheets to write the exams; gadgets such as mobile phones or laptops to download the question paper, sanitisers, masks, gloves, and a transparent water bottle.

The exams will be conducted in two shifts -- 9 am to noon and 3pm to 6pm. Colleges have been asked to sanitise the seating area before and after every shift. The seating arrangement will be made keeping a distance of 5 to 6 metres between seats, in accordance with guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC). “The seating plan will be communicated to the students a day in advance on their registered email/WhatsApp,” the advisory read.

Payal Mago, principal of Shaheed Rajguru College in Vasundhara Enclave, said that they have exams in two shifts at their college on Monday. “In the first shift, we are expecting only seven students. But in the second shift, around 150 students will take the exam on Monday. We are ready with all the arrangements. We have also procured oximeters to have a quick check on students as they enter the exam centres,” she said.