Calcutta University (CU) has struck down the appeal that the first-semester internal examination be deferred and said it would start on January 15 as scheduled.
Asutosh College had recently appealed to the university to defer the exam because the students who enrolled late did not have enough time to prepare.
Many colleges said it would help if the university delayed the exam as some students were admitted as late as November and they are not prepared to write the exam from January 15.
CU registrar Debasish Das said if they delayed the start of the examination, it would disrupt the entire academic calendar of the four-year programme and come in the way of starting the next semester’s classes in time.
“We cannot defer the (first-semester) internal examination,” Das told The Telegraph.
“Postponement will disrupt the academic calendar, which we cannot allow.
The colleges should have held additional classes to prepare the students who were enrolled late. If the internal exam is deferred, the end-semester classes would have to be pushed back as well. That would come in the way of completing the syllabus of the semester.”
Manas Kabi, the principal of Asutosh College, had written to the registrar in late December requesting him to postpone the exam to February-end.
The additional time, he said, would allow the college to complete the syllabus effectively and ensure that all students were adequately prepared for the examination.
Siuli Sarkar, the principal of Lady Brabourne College, told this newspaper they, too, wanted the examination to be deferred because the students who were admitted late had yet to complete the syllabus.
The principal of Asutosh College said on Tuesday they had held additional classes for the students who had been admitted in early October, when the higher education department allowed government and aided colleges to admit students on their
own to fill seats left vacant after the centralised counselling by the education
department.
“The government again asked colleges to admit students in November as some undergraduate seats were still vacant. Those admitted in November are not prepared to write the test despite holding additional classes. So we wanted the exams to
be deferred,” the principal said.