BENGALURU: Over 1,200 students from different engineering colleges across the state affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi took out a rally in the city on Friday. Their demands included removal of year-back and critical year-back system for non-CBCS (Choice-Based Credit System) students and supplementary exams for CBCS students.The protest rally was held simultaneously in 14 other district.
The rally started from City railway station and ended at University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) at KR Circle. It was jointly organized by VTU Students’ Struggle Committee and AIDSO.
“The announcement of results for December 2016 exams was delayed by five months. Results of many students were withheld. Only hours before the exam, the revaluation results and withheld results were announced. Such uncertainties over the results increase anxiety among the students,” said one of the protesters.
Addressing the students after the rally, senior writer Prof PV Narayana said, “It is unfortunate that students are on the streets instead of attending classes. The university has created a mess by being irresponsible.”
Students from around 50 engineering colleges took part in the protest as many of these students were forced to appear for as many as 16 examinations in three months. This was because of the delay in announcing re-evaluation results of the odd-semester examinations. Many students were forced to wrote both supplementary and off-semester exams together.
Sahithya, an engineering student, said, “At the colleges affiliated to VTU, we face new challenges every day. This year, the classes have started but colleges are not conducting parallel classes for CBCS students and non-CBCS students. Many students are forced to sit in classes even if the lessons taught are not part of their syllabus.” As of now, there is no option in VTU for CBCS students to write supplementary exams.
“We have requested university authorities several times to allow even CBCS students to appear for supplementary exams. But they have not yet responded,” said another student.
Students to continue protest
“We have approached the vice-chancellor but he is not responding to our demands. We will continue with the protest until our demands are met,” said Ranjan, a third-year student. Ravinandan BB, vice-president of All-India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO),said they will soon meet the state Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddy to make him understand the problems which students are facing.
What is ‘year-back’
In the year-back system, students cannot go to the next year if they fail in more than four subjects. The critical year system mandates that students cannot enter third year if they do not pass their first year papers or cannot enter final year if they do not pass all their second year papers.