Students like the no failing concept

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A recent notification released by the University of Delhi (DU) says that students who have failed or could not appear in their first or second year exams (2012 -2013) under the three-year undergraduate programme (semester mode) will be allowed to move to the next semester.
The move is supposed to be a transitory measure. This relaxation is being given due to the university’s transition from the three-year to four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP). According to the notification, students who have failed in their first year exams, can move on to the third semester and then clear their first or second semester exams along with their third or fourth semester exams.
The announcement has come as a pleasant surprise for students who have failed. Kush Ahuja, a History (Hons) student of DU, who has still not told his parents about having failed, is happy that he won’t have to tell them anything now. “I was so scared to tell my parents that I have to repeat a year,” says Kush, who himself wasn’t too kicked with the idea of repeating a year. “That’s a sad thing to happen when all your classmates start working and you are still in college, writing exams,” he says and adds that this should be made permanent.
Not just him, many college students don’t want to waste a year. In fact, the student unions have been fighting to make it a regular affair.
“Now that we have a four-year undergraduate programme in DU, it would cost a lot to repeat a year for any student even if he has failed in multiple subjects,” says Piyush, a second year student of Sanskrit (Hons), Hindu College, who thinks that at least in the first two years, nobody should be detained. “In the later two, the marks can be strictly evaluated,” he adds.
Kanika Gupta, a recent pass out of DU, thinks that it makes sense to give certain liberties to students of first and second year. “Many times the new students are lost and thus their performance is affected. If the module becomes a little easier, they would automatically perform better in the final years,” she says.
But the teachers think otherwise. While they appreciate the present move of the University, they don’t think that making it a regular affair would help. “In the past, we had Board exams even in Class 5 and Class 8. To make it easier for the students, we have not only done away with them but even the Class 10 Boards. Now, it can’t be made easier than that. Time to time evaluation is needed to check the growth of a student. If a student doesn’t face failure, he would not struggle to achieve what he wants. For this year, the move is okay, but if it continues, it will have a bad impact on the entire system,” says Dr Manoj Sinha, assistant professor, Political Science, Ram Lal Anand College.