Slow server, accessibility issues: DU students unable to register for exams, attend classes

On April 21, the students of the University of Delhi were sent a notice by the university's administration, asking them to fill up the examination forms online, by May 15. However, the students say they haven't been able to do so. The reason? The university's website server is slow and it took a lot of them close to an hour to fill up the form.

"During the rush hours when a lot of people were not able to log in, the students were being redirected to the same page again and again. For the others who managed to log in, it took around an hour to actually submit the form. The page was reloading after every minute operation," says Suchintan Das, a student of St Stephen's College. " A lot of students are also not able to attend classes. Only a third of my classmates attend the classes now," he adds.

Now, this has raised another important question among the students and faculty of the university - how to write the examinations if they're held online? "The registration itself takes up so much time, so we wonder what could happen if the exams are held online," says Suchintan. "This will be difficult especially for students from Kashmir and places with slow internet connections," he says. Damini Kain, a student of Hindu College also raised a similar issue. "A lot of us had filled up the forms offline previously. But now, they are asking us to fill it up again, online. This is impossible because the page doesn't load," she says.

The university's faculty had previously raised their voice against conducting classes online, stating that a majority of students are unable to attend them. "A lot of students have been raising this issue. If the university is pushing for online examinations, all the teachers are opposed to that. That will make a mockery of the system," says Nandita Narain, a faculty at St Stephen's College, Delhi. Talking about the online classes, she says, "There is no system in place. A lot of students have no access to a steady connection. The university is using the pandemic to push an agenda that they had for a long time," she adds.