Students from DU’s Mathematics Department have been protesting since February 14After mass failure in some subjects in Delhi University’s mathematics department in December’s semester examinations, students are demanding that the Rs 1,000 fee for re-evaluation be waived.
According to students, 35 out of 40 who had the Computational Fluid Dynamics course in their third semester failed the paper. They further claim that 150 out of 300 students failed the first semester Field Theory paper and 130 out of 300 failed the Measure and Integration paper. Students had received their results on February 8, and have been protesting the large-scale failing since February 14.
“These results are abnormal. Most of the students are toppers from various state universities, they are people who cracked the entrance exam. If there is such massive failure, we want to see our answer sheets and see how we have been marked,” said Devendra, a second-year student.
The students are demanding free of cost re-evaluation of the three aforementioned papers, and the third semester Fourier Analysis paper, where they said a large number of students performed poorly as well. Students also demanded transparency in the correction process so that they can see their answer sheets after they have been checked.
Apart from this, they are also demanding that students be allowed to clear their backlogs through re-examinations within two months after every semester. Currently, students have to wait for a year to sit for the re-examination.
“There are so few students in the mathematics department who complete their masters in two years because of evaluation of this kind and the wait to clear backlogs and give improvement tests. Students are unable to be eligible for the NET and JRF, they can’t study further, can’t get scholarships. The final-year students will be stranded,” said Srijani Kar, a second-year student.
During the course of their protest since February 14, three students also sat on hunger strike for two days starting from February 19.
Head of mathematics department C S Lalitha said, “We have done whatever we could from our side. These are decisions that the university has to make and everything will only be according to university policy.”
