Delhi University professors demand scrapping of open book exams, say deferring shows OBE untenable

Condemning the Delhi University’s decision to postpone the online open book exams for final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses, professors of the varsity on Wednesday demanded cancellation of the test and asked it not to increase the anxiety and stress of the students. The Delhi University on Wednesday issued a notification, saying the online open book exams scheduled from 10 July have been postponed. This is the second time that the exams have been postponed. Last month, the varsity had postponed the exams that were scheduled to begin from 1 July and shifted them to 10 July. In a Facebook post, Delhi University Teachers’ Association president Rajib Ray said, “MHRD-UGC do not play with the lives of students and teachers! Repeated postponement of OBE in DU proves its untenability. Do not increase students’ anxiety and stress. Cancel OBE has been and remains our demand - it is discriminatory, promotes unfair practices and penalizes honest students.” Students and teachers have been opposing the decision of the varsity to conduct Online Open Book exams (OBE). Under the ‘‘Open-Book’’ mode of examination, the student will be able to refer books, notes and other study materials to answer the questions. The decision of the Delhi University to postpone final year examination till 15 August is not a step in right direction, said Pankaj Garg, convener of Indian National Teachers’ Congress. “It is going to further aggravate the problems of students. This is not the time to do any experiments and Delhi University is playing with the future of lakhs of students. “The only solution is to cancel the exams and declare the results of students on the basis of past performance and current session internal assessment. The way COVID-19 cases are increasing everyday, there would be no improvement in situation by August 15,” he added. Another DU teachers’ body – Academics for Action and Development – echoed similar reactions and said it “strongly condemns its insensitivity to the problems faced by the students in the whole process”. “It is quite unfortunate that the Court is addressing the problems faced by students to which the university administration turned deaf ears. The decision of the administration to postpone the online examination is not a solution and will further complicate the problem. “We demand cancellation of the online OBE on the basis of statutory violations, academic absurdity and logistical challenges,” they said.