BENGALURU: Thousands of engineering students from colleges affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, boycotted classes on Friday following the bandh call given by the VTU Students Struggle Committee.
While a majority of the colleges witnessed only about 10 per cent attendance, at a few colleges, faculty members returned home after students did not turn up.
Members of All India Democratic Students Orginsation (AIDSO) and Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had extended support for the bandh. They even staged a protest at Mysore Bank Circle in the city demanding the authorities to fulfill their long-pending demands. Their major demand was for removal of year-back and critical year-back system for non-CBCS (Choice Based Credit System) students and supplementary exams for CBCS students.
A student who took part in the protest said, “The results of December 2016 exams was delayed by five months. Also, results of hundreds of students were withheld without any valid reason, and were announced just a few hours before the exam. This uncertainty over results and anomalies in the evaluation process has caused dilemma and anxiety among several students.”
Recently, over 1,200 students took out a rally from City Railway station to KR Circle and decided to call for the bandh on September 1.
In the year-back system, students cannot be promoted to next year if they fail in more than four subjects. The critical year system mandates that students cannot go to third year if they do not pass their first year papers or cannot enter final year if they do not pass all second year papers.