DU open book exam: High court says 'Final year students not thoroughly prepared for OBE'

Delhi University has conducted mock tests for the final year students. The Delhi High Court has observed that the candidates were not 'thoroughly prepared' to take the DU open book exam, which the university proposed. A division of bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad compared the data by relating to the first and second phases of mock tests and revealed their observation.

DU open book exam news

As per the data, it has been revealed that 1,83,376 students had registered for OBE in the first phase. On the other hand, more candidates applied for the second phase. 1,86,814 students registered themselves for the same.

However, out of the total registered students for the first phase, only 93,185 among them logged in for the mock test. Moreover, the second phase witnessed an even lesser number of candidates. A total of 75,593 people logged in for the second phase.

The data also revealed the number of papers, which the students attempted in the first and the second phase. In the former, 60,181 students gave the test. Meanwhile, the total number of students who took the papers were 51,176.

Moving ahead, the total number of papers, which the candidates submitted in the first phase, were 33,160. On the other hand, the next phase observed the submission of 23,693 tests. So, after checking the data, the bench spoke about PWD (Person with Disability) and VH (Visually Handicapped) category of students. It said that the data of the second phase of mock tests were not better than the first phase.

These observations surfaced when the bench was reportedly hearing a plea that a physically disabled student Prateek Sharma filed. He opened up about the difficulties that they would face while taking the online exam. Moreover, the court granted 10-days-time to the university, so it would file an affidavit to clarify its position. It also needs to reveal the date of result declaration for final year students, who decide to sit in the open book examination.

The bench scheduled the matter for further hearing on August 17, 2020. Delhi University is required to state how many students had logged in for participating in the online OBE. The varsity is also required to indicate the assessment of the number of students who would take the exams physically later on. On the other side, a separate bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh reserved orders on pleas, which challenged the varsity’s decision to conduct the DU open book exam for final year students. According to reports, during the hearing, the university submitted that DU Open book exam was the best option to check the candidates’ knowledge while keeping UGC guidelines in considerations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The senior advocate Sachin Dutta, which represented the varsity, explained the idea behind DU open book exam. He revealed that OBE was to prevent students from assembling in one hall to maintain social distancing. He also said that there were detailed deliberations. The senior advocate also told that a candidate did not need a high technology to sit for an online DU open book exam. He said that having an email would be sufficient.

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