After a week-long deadlock between students of Khalsa College and its management, students finally called off the protest. The college witnessed normalcy on Wednesday with students and staff coming in to attend the classes.
Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC) spokesperson Dharmendra Rataul informed HT that as the protest has been called off, the management will shortly declare the date for the final examinations that were held back due to the situation.
He added that the exams will likely be conducted on May 9.
He said that the fact finding committee which is headed by financial secretary, KCGC, Gunbir Singh will also be submitting their report within ten days. This committee will go in depth of the case and see what went wrong and by whom, and the management will accordingly take the decision.
The one week long deadlock which started after the suicide by a student, Harpreet Singh, who was allegedly debarred from appearing in practical examination due to shortage of attendance. Former state president and general secretary of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union HS Walia warned of possible re-occurrence of such incidents, if colleges do not frame transparent rules or strictly follow university rules pertaining to the eligibility conditions for appearing in final university examinations.
“The colleges often impose hefty penalty (fine) and sometimes debar the students from appearing in the university examination on the grounds of low attendance or poor performance in-house examinations or both. As regards to attendance criteria, the GNDU calendar clearly stipulates the requirement of 75 percent attendance out of the total lectures delivered by the teachers as a pre-condition for earning eligibility to appear in the examination.”
{{/usCountry}}“The colleges often impose hefty penalty (fine) and sometimes debar the students from appearing in the university examination on the grounds of low attendance or poor performance in-house examinations or both. As regards to attendance criteria, the GNDU calendar clearly stipulates the requirement of 75 percent attendance out of the total lectures delivered by the teachers as a pre-condition for earning eligibility to appear in the examination.”
{{/usCountry}}However, affiliated colleges don’t implement the said condition in letter and spirit so as to attract more students for admission and the university authorities do not bother to direct the college authorities to strictly implement the rule.
He said that the college authorities should also periodically inform the parents/guardians of the students regarding any shortfall in attendance. All this will go a long way in saving the students from unnecessary and unwarranted harassment at the eleventh hour as well as save the academic atmosphere from vitiating.
“The decisions are taken by the principal in consultation with the honorary secretary/the president of the governing council and so the registration of an FIR against the HOD seems to be unjustified. The gamut of issue needs further investigation before arriving at the conclusion,” said HS Walia.