Storming the ivory tower: Angry parents protest DU admissions

New Delhi: Last Thursday, forty six-year-old Anita Pahwa visited the College of Vocational Studies with her son Akshay (17) hopeful of a good graduate education for him and certain of securing him admission. Five days later, both mother and son are left with neither hope nor a seat in the college – despite Akshay exceeding the cut-off for his course. After four days of camping at the college (first for admission forms, then for submitting them and securing admissions) and having secured 83.5 percent – 3.5 percent more than the college cut out – Akshay, who had applied for the English Honours course at CVS, is in bed down with fever and fatigue, and without an inkling of what his academic future holds. Apply, apply, no reply Like scores of other parents who had been doing the rounds of the South Delhi college, Anita Pahwa is angry at the college administration. “The college and its principal is mainly responsible for the position my son is in today. The students make the colleges and university what they are, but seeing the way they treated us – abused us and kept us locked out of the college – I have no doubt that they do not care about the same students that give them a good reputation. They do not care about the future of this country,” an upset Pahwa told Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_924463” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. AFP[/caption] “They kept calling us back for admission forms and then when we finally got the forms, they would not allow us to submit them till we all protested. They also lied to us after taking our forms, saying that our children would be given admission and that we should come on Monday and pay the fees,” she said, “But on Monday they locked their gates and wouldn’t neither let us in nor allow us to pay and formalise the admission.” The college authorities, alleged Pahwa, have been unreasonable and dictatorial, often not following the official admissions procedure. High tempers have in turn led to clashes between parents, students and educational administrators at various colleges – CVS, being a case in point where the college administration brought the police to fight back parents demanding admission. A similar incident took place at Ram Lal Anand College last Saturday, when upset parents barged into the principal’s office after the administration refused to admit anymore students into its Maths honours course post 1 pm, despite them making the cut-off. According to Delhi University rules, all students meeting the cut-off must be given admission. The rule states: “The colleges shall admit all students who have marks that meet the announced cut-off criteria. No first-come-first-served policy is permitted.” In another episode of violence, two teachers at the Atma Ram Sanatan Dharam College (ARSD) in South Delhi were manhandled and bruised. Fearing the wrath of parents and students after admissions to the computer science course were closed, the admissions administrator of the college had to leave through the college’s back exit. “This is the first time in 17 years that this course has been run here, that such an incident occurred. There were at least about a 100 parents outside the college gates, after the incident of the two teachers being manhandled,” a professor who witnessed the crowd’s fury but did not want to be named told Firstpost. Too many students, too few seats While Delhi University’s popular English Honours course has cut-offs ranging from 88 percent and 98 percent in the top colleges, like Lady Shri Ram (LSR), Ramjas, Kamala Nehru and Hindu, the cut-off for CVS was a more reasonable 80 percent. Even as Delhi University switches to a four year program this academic year amid much resistance and protests, its desirability continues to rise with students across the country and abroad due to its solid reputation and affordability vis-a-vis private universities. The university saw an increase of 44 percent in the number of applications this academic year and the university’s Foreign Students Registry received over 2,500 admission applications from students from over 108 countries. [embedalsosee] While these numbers draw an impressive picture of the university and its reputation, the greater competition — coupled with reservation quotas — has also led to increased frustration among parents. The huge influx of students into Delhi University has created more pressure on individual colleges and the university’s infrastructure, thus rendering principals of colleges and their administrations helpless — or so they claim as justification for the haphazard admissions process. “We have 60 seats for the English Honours course, with 32 for the general category. Yet, we have admitted 195 students for the course in the general category alone. That’s already over six times the allotted number of seats for the general category! What else can we do?” asks Inder Jeet, principal of the College of Vocational Studies. But Manoj Sood, a bank employee from Bangalore seeking admission for his daughter, said that he decided to withdraw his daughter’s application after his interaction with the principal, Inder Jeet. According to Sood, he pleaded with Jeet to think about the future of the students. “But, the principal said to me, ‘It is not my responsibility what happens to the children. Even if they are admitted my faculty doesn’t have the capacity and all the children will fail’." Jeet, however, denied allegations of abusive behavior and told Firstpost that he had to keep in mind the limited infrastructure when admitting students. “Many parents are unruly and aggressive. They don’t see our difficulties and limitations, but just get stubborn and then behave unreasonably,” Jeet said. The professor at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharam College told Firstpost that he understood the plight of parents who were desperate to get their children admission, but said that the college’s hands were tied. “Every parent will want to see their child in the best college possible. But our capacity for the course is a total of 50 students of which we have already admitted 125 students in the general category,” he said, adding, “If we have the infrastructure for only 50 students and we admit 500 how will the course even function?” As a result of this skewed ratio between the number of seats available and the large number of students, many are now forced to look toward private universities with higher fees and vocational courses. Many others may just have to waste a year waiting for admission in another college. Whither youth dividend? With India’s youth dividend being hyped as the future of the country, it is shocking to note that 47 percent of graduates In India are unemployable for any job, according to Aspiring Minds’ National Employability Report, which was conducted across India and had 60,000 participants. With more and more students applying to universities each year and not enough seats to match up, the youth dividend may well become a youth liability for India. While the logical step is to build more quality institutions across the country, some parents like Anita Pahwa insist that the number of reserved seats must be cut until the gap is bridged. “Universities like DU are very famous and reputed and so there will always be many students who will aspire to be admitted into it. If the government cannot give us more colleges to accommodate the large number of students then they should either decrease or abolish the SC/ST and OBC quota. It’s wrong that most children don’t get a chance or seat in a course of their choice because there aren’t as many seats as there are students and because the seats available are reserved for the SC/ST and OBCs,” Pahwa said.