NU’s second term starts, but no classes held yet

Nagpur: The second academic session started a week ago, yet not a single class has been held in nearly all Nagpur University postgraduate departments and affiliated colleges because students are still busy with winter exams. Teachers have blamed the exam schedule, where papers of backlog students were held first while regular students had to wait till November 12. Even now, exams of several undergraduate and postgraduate courses are yet to begin. Some of these exam will carry on till January while the summer exams will commence from February 20.
This time too, Bachelor of Arts (BA) first semester students are the worst hit with their exam stretching from November 21 to January 4. Last summer, the BA exam had continued for over three months, overlapping with the new session.

Colleges and teachers have expressed concerns over completing the mandatory 90-day teaching norm of University Grants Commission (UGC). At the start of first term, TOI had reported how the previous semester overlapped with the new term and also the admission process delayed start of classes. Teaching period had shrunk to 62 days in the first term and now with the exams going on till January, the second term also may not get more than two-and-a-half-months.

Lashing out at NU planners, a humanities teacher said the vacation period is actually meant for conducting exams. “But exams are starting just when the colleges have re-opened. The academic calender was notified in April, still they couldn’t plan teaching period and exams properly. The teachers are coming to work but there are no students in class,” the teacher said.

Another teacher said when the students come for classes, the teachers would be gone. “After exams, the evaluation of answerbooks starts and teachers are occupied with the Herculean task. If this doesn’t happen, then the results will get delayed. It is a tricky situation,” the teacher said.

A professor from one of NU’s departments said the problem started since implementation of semester pattern. “At many departments, the teaching period is not more than a month. November is gone in exams while in December the teacher is away for exam work. Only January is left while February-end the summer exams start,” the professor said, adding that the sheer number of exams is taking a toll on academics.

NU officials said the exams for backlog students are kept first so that they can appear for their regular ones later. “Shortage of exam centres also adds to the delay. There are several notorious centre we can’t allot exams. This increases the number of days for all exams. It is a fact that extended vacations during Diwali are actually meant for conducting exams without disturbing classes,” they said.