Students and teachers at Ranchi University have expressed dissatisfaction with the varsity administration’s decision to cancel the imminent summer vacation from May 20 to June 21.

Vice-chancellor, Ramesh Kumar Pandey, issued a notification on Monday stating that “The summer vacation of 2019 was withdrawn to regularise the teaching session and examination.” Teachers would get earned leave for the period as per the university’s act/statute, the notification said.

University officials said that as the Act stipulated one day of earned leave for three days of work during holidays, teachers would get a total of 10 days earned leaves.

While many post graduate courses in the university lag behind by around one year, some under graduate courses are irregular by over six months.

Kamini Kumar, pro vice-chancellor of the university said that governor’s office had issued directions to the university for regularisation of the courses by June 15. The university would conduct all graduation and post graduation exams by June 15, and announce the results by the next fortnight. This would regularise the delay in the UG and PG courses, she said.

However, the decision of scrapping the holidays has not gone down well with the students and teachers of the university . A professor, who did not wish to be named said, that the decision was arbitrary. The provision of earned leave was not commensurate with the long working hours. For most of the fourth semester post graduate courses, the syllabus had to be completed within a fortnight. This had created additional burden on both teachers and students alike, the professor said.

Students said that, the bid to regularise courses had resulted in a situation where they were overburdened. Poonam Kumari, a fourth semester PG student in Psychology department and secretary of Ranchi University students’ union said, that the students had to suffer because of flaws in the decision making by the authorities.

She said that technical glitches in the Online Common Application Form (CAF) for admission in the previous academic session had resulted in a delay in the admission process. The introduction of choice based credit system (CBCS) had resulted in examinations being delayed. The procedural delays were further worsened by the fact that the university did not have an academic calendar, Kumari said.

Rohit Kesari, another fourth semester PG student said that he had written his third semester exams in March. Without providing sufficient time to students, the next semester examinations were announced. Instead of much required vacations, classes were going to be conducted in a bid to complete the syllabus.

However, the Pro VC said regularisation of the courses and examinations was in the best interest of the students. She said that during the previous year, the Durga Puja vacations were cancelled to regularise the courses. After the courses were regularised, the university was planning to introduce only two vacations in a year, one each at the end of the semesters, she said.

First Published: May 18, 2019 12:10 IST