St Stephen's College has been embroiled in controversy regarding its admission policy. While the DU VC, most of the faculty and students are opposed to the 85:15 weightage criteria, the college administration remains fixed on maintaining it. In a new turn to the situation, the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) students from St Stephen's College held a protest outside the college on Friday, April 23. They also put forth the demand for extra classes in the college.
Speaking about the matter, Sourya, a student of the college, says that the demonstration was held especially to demand the revoking of the admission policy. “There shouldn’t be such an exclusive and arbitrary process, and already with such a high cut-off,” he said. “The admission is currently a merit-based process. It has been seen that students from good private backgrounds, studying in elite schools and having excellent marks in the 12th standard are the ones who study in premier colleges,” explained Harsh, a member of the KYS.
Elaborating further on the issue, he said, “Almost 80-90% of the students at Delhi University are from elite, English-medium backgrounds. But it is a public-funded institution. So, if it is meant for everyone, where do the government school students go?” Answering the question himself, Harsh adds, “The government school students are unable to get an admission into the colleges because of the admission policy which is unfair to them."
What are they against?
The students are against two things, the first of which is the CUET and the second is St Stephen’s admission policy. “CUET makes sure that only the private school students can clear the entrance and take an admission in colleges,” says Harsh. He further explains that the number of government schools students opting for higher education is less and, on top of that, the entrance test was unfair to them.
And regarding the St Stephen's admission policy, he opines that the interview should be scrapped. “The interview is a screening process. It becomes one where the students are assessed and only those from elite backgrounds are taken in,” he says. “These institutions are saving their elitism. This should be stopped,” he adds.
As a solution, he says that DU should also adopt some means to inculcate students from all backgrounds. “The introduction of a 20% deprivation point and establishing a portal as JNU did, can be some options, though they are not completely satisfactory,” he stated. And another good solution for welcoming more students into the elite colleges is to increase the number of seats, he said, for which the KYS has been asking St Stephen's to conduct evening classes as well.
All for good education
“If an institution can provide good education, it should be accessible to a majority. And for that, the seats also have to be increased. Having more students will be developmental for the university as well. And for that seats need to be increased. But this means more infrastructure and more costs. So, we are asking them to use the existing infrastructure and start evening classes, so that the number of seats can be doubled, and more students can come in,” Harsh said.
Harsh also added that this demand was not new and has been put forth to the college administration many times before, but it has not been worked on. “Currently some colleges like the Satyavati College provide evening classes,” says Harsh. “The demand for physical classes has been placed so as to provide better opportunities to all,” adds Sourya.
However, the student says that the St Stephen's administration is reluctant to roll back its admission policy. “The administration has refused to budge,” Sourya said. “The former principal has written to them, the faculty and alumna have also stood with us, but the college is adamant about maintaining the 85:15 weightage criteria. The St Stephen's administration had earlier declared that it would give 85% weightage to the CUET exam and 15% weightage would be carried by the interview conducted by it for all the candidates.
