With exams in a month, Mumbai University-affiliated colleges rush to finish syllabus

Delay in announcing 2016-17 results forced students to give up vacations, festivals.

With 90% of students awaiting previous semester results, colleges are struggling to complete the syllabus for the examinations scheduled to begin in March 2018.

Representational Image/HT File

The delay in announcement of results last year left all MU-affiliated colleges conducting exams for the first semester post-Diwali vacations. It also delayed the admission process.

Many colleges are making changes to their academic schedule in order to complete the pending portion.

“Our teachers reworked the academic schedule and are now working towards completing the portion of the current semester by March end,” said Dinesh Panjwani, principal of RD National College, Bandra.

Usually, colleges run regular lectures till the first week of March and leave students on a study break before exams.

“Until last year, summer session exams would begin in mid-March, but this year, I hope the university understands our predicament and schedules exams accordingly,” he said.

At RA Podar College in Matunga, the management has redone their daily lecture schedule to accommodate maximum lectures in a day.

“Instead of a 50 minute lecture, we changed it to 40 minutes per lecture. Our teachers have ensured that they complete more than their quota of online assessment and at the same time also ensure that the portion is completed,” said Sobhana Vasudevan, principal of RA Podar College.

Colleges had to start regular lectures only after the second week of December as classes were marked for the examinations and teachers too, were busy with supervision as well as assessment duty.

Some institutes also resorted to extra lectures to ensure that studies are not affected due to the delay in exams.

“Teachers are still busy with assessment so we have made sure that all extra holidays in the semester are utilised for extra lectures. Teachers have taken up this work to make sure that students do not suffer,” said Rajpal Hande, principal of Mithibai College in Vile Parle.