Delhi University SOL classes yet to begin, students in lurch

Even while the semesters for all the regular courses are over and examination are underway in colleges across the Delhi University (DU), the students of School of Open Learning (SOL) are still waiting for their classes to begin. Adding to their woes, they have not even received the study material yet.

SOL is a correspondence option offered by the DU. It admits around 1.5 lakh students in undergraduate courses every year and offers BA, BCom, BA (Honours) Political Science, BCom (Honours) and BA (Honours) English, among others. Every year, the classes for these students begin in the last week of September.

Agitated by the delay, hundreds of SOL students protested at the university's north campus on Tuesday. "This is victimisation of correspondent students. While the students of regular colleges have had their syllabi completed, the SOL students, coming from deprived and marginalised sections, still do not know their syllabi half-a-year after taking admission," said Ravinder Kumar, a second-year BA (prog) student.

The students also submitted a memorandum to executive director (SOL), H C Pokhriyal demanding immediate commencement of classes of all courses."This is not the first time that the university is giving us this step-motherly treatment. We are always being discriminated in one way or the other," said Sneha Sharma, a correspondent BCom student.

"We are not even provided with an adequate number of classrooms. Last year, as many as 1,000 SOL students used to come for classes at Saraswati College. But we have been provided with only eight classrooms. It's really difficult to accommodate all the students in them," she added.

Officials, however, assured students that arrangements would be made for their classes shortly.

Despite several attempts, Pokhriyal did not respond to the questions.

In July this year, the SOL students were at loggerheads with the university when their results got delayed by more than four months. Following which several hundreds of students could not take admissions in the masters courses.

TOO MANY GRIPES

• Students say they have not been provided adequate number of classrooms
   
• One of them said as many as 1,000 SOL students used to come for lectures at Saraswati College, but they had been given only eight classrooms
   
• The students say they are yet to receive the study material
   
• To air their grievances, the students held a protest at the university’s north campus on Tuesday