DU Exam Chaos: Students wait for question papers for hours, teachers blame NEP-driven overload

Delhi University students and teachers reached their classes early today as the semester exams began – but the question papers never arrived! According to faculty members, question papers for more than 35 courses failed to reach several colleges, leaving students waiting for hours at the exam centre.

The DU semester exams for regular and the School of Open Learning (SOL) began on December 10. However, the DU exam chaos began immediately after that as several even semester classes reportedly overlapped with new semester classes.

Faculty members said that the disruption was widespread as a large number of exams were scheduled for the day, with each college conducting exams for 30 to 70 discipline-specific courses for semester VII exams, as per the official DU datesheet.

Due to more papers per semester and additional subject choices, and an extra year provided under FYUP, the workload has significantly increased, teachers said.

“A huge number of examinations were listed for today. NEP-driven Four-year UG Programme (FYUP) has led to a sharp increase in the number of examinations. Exam work has increased manifold. This is leading to a systemic collapse,” a DU faculty said.

“Too much for DU to chew - reportedly exam papers of over 30 courses have not reached colleges. Students are waiting restlessly!” Abha Dev Habib posted on Facebook.

Also read ‘Bitter experience’: DU’s 4th-year students face sudden rule changes, limited options, teacher shortage

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A senior professor said frequent academic changes under the National Education Policy may have led to the lapse. “With so many frequent changes being introduced repeatedly, it seems several papers were not logged into the system. NEP for me is 'Nothing Ensues Properly'. It is the responsibility of the examination department to prepare the papers,” the professor said.

According to initial estimates, question papers for at least 35 courses were missing, including four discipline-specific elective papers in commerce alone. In the computer science department, papers for Digital Image Processing and computer design were reportedly not shared till 12.30 pm, DU professor VS Dixit said.

“This is a sorry state of affairs. Colleges have been waiting since morning for papers. Very much inconvenient for the students. As far as Computer Science is concerned, two papers, Digital Image Processing and compiler design papers are not received across university till 12:30 pm,” he told Careers360.

Recently, Monami Sinha, a member of the DU Academic Council urged the university to revisit the FYUP dissertation guidelines, which are undergoing frequent changes, and called the requirements ‘unreasonable’. Although the FYUP was introduced to give flexibility and multiple entry and exit options for students, the initiative has turned out to be chaotic and uncertain.