Around 75 per cent of Delhi University's students may not be able to write the semester examinations online, reveals a survey conducted by the All India Students' Association. The survey's results also say that only 22 per cent of the students are able to attend all the online lectures. Over 1,500 students across DU colleges took part in the survey.
At a time when the COVID pandemic has pushed all institutions to leverage the power of the internet to complete the portions, conduct lectures and even exams, this survey is sure to cause some ripples. Seventy-two per cent of the students do not attend online lectures owing to poor connectivity. While 11.6 per cent state financial incapability as a reason, 7.6 per cent say that they have household chores to do. As many as 67.6 per cent of them, however, have laptops. While only 28 per cent have access to sufficient online study materials, most of them say that only a few teachers have provided enough study materials to them.
"We had circulated the survey questionnaire to students from various colleges. A lot of them couldn't send the responses. That too speaks volumes about their access to technology," says Damini Kain, a member of AISA. "We are planning to submit the survey results in the form of a letter to the Vice-Chancellor soon. The conduct of online classes and examinations is not a feasible idea," she says.
The Delhi University Teachers' Association had previously written to the university's Vice-Chancellor, opposing online classes stating that "going online is not viable for DU with its "diverse student population, and must not even be considered." Previously, Saikat Ghosh, a DU faculty told Edexlive. "Some students have gone back home to remote areas (small towns and villages) where the internet service is not good enough. They have to rely on just the written notes and articles which are not enough." Another faculty Nandita Narain said, "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."
Even though the Delhi University Students' Union is yet to release an official statement, its President Akshit Dahiya said that it has set up a committee to look into the issue. "I personally oppose the idea of online classes. This is not practical in a university like DU with around 400,000 students. Probably smaller universities like JNU can adopt this," he says.
