The much-delayed admission process of Delhi University has finally gained momentum and it's expected that the first list of admissions should be out before October 1. The chair of the admission committee has initiated dialogues with college principals on the probable cut-off, and as the past years the impractical cut-off are all set to make screaming headlines.
The annulment of examinations by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) this year has left lakhs of children staring at a vacuum as far as their future progress is concerned. Their plans for stepping onto the next stage of knowledge gathering has received a setback.
Scrapping of examinations will now make the process of admissions more tedious and circuitous at the graduate level in both professional and conventional courses.
In a recent news report, it was claimed that given the farcical nature of evaluations done by CBSE, the number of examinees with 95 per cent plus marks has increased manifold, which may see higher cut-off lists. But this does not indicate the true health of the university.
The statistics of the applications received for admission to under-graduate courses tell a different story. From 3.53 lakh applications received last year, the numbers have come down to 2.90 lakh this year - a steep fall of about 18 per cent. Why such a fall, this question should haunt the stakeholders of the prestigious university.
Pandemic and its aftermath have thrown new challenges before the education system of this country. While some centres have risen to the challenge, others have not. The migration teaching-learning community to the digital platforms has not been uniform. The digital divide and digital deficit are real time challenges facing the education sector.
The seekers of education from rural India, living in lodges and hostels, have been forced to return to their pastoral hearths, which are mostly out of digital networks. This may be one of the reasons for low rate of application.
There could be another reason for the decline - the falling stock of the university. In the coming week, non-teaching employees of Delhi University will go on strike to demand release of regular salary and other related perks.
Nothing could be more unfortunate for teachers and students who have to go on frequent strikes and shutdowns to get their minimum due from governments - Delhi and central; both talk of putting focus on education but have seldom walked the talk. For the past few years, Delhi government on some pretext or other failed to release funds for regular disbursement of salaries.
While the teachers and employees have faced the brunt of the unjustifiable action of the Delhi Government, the fact also remains that the situation has arisen because Delhi University in past six years has remained completely leaderless and rudderless.
The last Vice Chancellor Professor Yogesh K Tyagi was more conspicuous by his absence from public than delivery of any good on the campus.
The grapevine has it that name of the next Vice Chancellor has been finalised but the notification has been delayed. This has extended the rudderless state of Delhi University. It remains to be seen how soon the centre appoints the next vice-chancellor, and how efficient is the person nominated for the job.
The challenge before the new V-C would be to bring the colleges back on track through a regular and efficient teaching-learning process. Whether that happens or not, only time will tell.
(The writer is an author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice)