Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
With Inputs from Media Release
Udupi, Aug 29: Members of the National Students Union Of India (NSUI) on Monday August 28 staged a protest in front of Clock Tower, here against the dysfunctions prevalent in Visvesvaraya Techonological University (VTU). They demanded cancellation of the Critical Year Back System (CBCS) and introduction of supplementary examination for CBCS students as well as non-choice based credit system.
NSUI Udupi district president Christan Almeida addressing the protestors said, "Based on credible sources, the Central government tax raid on VTU has resulted in an enormous financial burden on VTU. National newspapers and media have speculated that VTU is on the verge of shutting down due to bankruptcy. Around two and a half lac engineering students have suffered on account of this, as results supposed to be announced in February were delayed by almost six months. Even after the delay, only a portion of the semester results were announced in the beginning of July while the rest were withheld. However, our suffering did not end there.
"VTU without delay issued a timetable and expected the students to answer their exams without announcing the revaluation results. It was only after students' protests and media pressure that VTU postponed the exams by a week. The entire list of final year students’ revaluation results were announced a day before the final year exams. How is it possible for students to prepare for exams without their revaluation results?
"The irony is, this continued through the rest of the semesters and VTU announced the remaining revaluation results a night before the exams. To top it all, the results were uploaded in pdf files instead of being updated in database. This resulted in a huge amount of turmoil for the students. Most of the students' revaluation results were either missing or withheld.
"Students are indeed affected mentally and are not in a position to bear all these irregularities from the university anymore. Despite ample time on hand, it is not possible to score well in Engineering due to the vast syllabus and strict evaluation by VTU.
"How can they expect us to study when revaluation results are announced the previous night of the examination? There are reports and proofs that VTU did not evaluate the answer scripts in the revaluation, but marked zero for few students who expected more than 80 marks. Even now many students are unable to check their results and most the photocopies applied for by the students have not been sent to their emails either. All these issues are literally torturing the students.
"In light of this, students are on the verge of giving up hope. Another big hurdle is the crash course, which was introduced in the third and final year as well as for second year students to save them from the year back scheme six months back which caused more trouble than good.
"Crash course students are now answering more than 16 subjects in addition to the previous backlog in a duration of just two months along with the regular students. This amounts to eight subjects from the odd semester and eight subjects from the even semester as well as previous backlogs. How is it possible to clear more than 16 subjects in a single attempt? Even after the announcement of the results, there are hundreds of students whose results are still withheld. Nobody knows the reason for the results to be kept on hold even after seven months of the examination. There are no guidelines on what must be done if results are withheld or missing. Some students' results show students absent even though they had attended all the examinations.
"As regards the year back system of VTU, we are the only batch studying as per the old 2010 scheme. We are hopefully wishing to complete this engineering course in the same scheme without shifting to CBCS system, as all these issues have bothered the students a lot. We are expecting VTU to take necessary action.
Arthur Charles said, "VTU is caught up in a huge scandal. It is making money in the name of revaluation. Students get less marks despite their great efforts. VTU is playing with the lives of engineering students."
As a result of the irregularities the demands of the engineering students of VTU are:
1. Cancellation of the year back system for both crash course students as well as regular students of 2010 scheme for the academic year 2017.
2. Permit those students who failed in the critical subjects to attend classes as they are the last batch to study under the 2010 scheme.
3. Provide supplementary exams for CBCS students of 2017 batch.
Christan Almeida, Nikhil Devadiga, Devdas Nayak, Sachin, Marsh, Shrirag, Shailesh, Mohammed Swahil and others were present.