DU online exams: Differently-abled students accuse varsity of being 'discriminatory'

New Delhi: With the Delhi University (DU) all set to conduct online open-book exams for final-year students from Monday, differently-abled students said they will not be able to take the test and accused the university of being "exclusionary" and "discriminatory".

The Delhi High Court has given its nod to the DU to conduct the exams.

Amid opposition from teachers and students, the university will be conducting the exams from Monday. A teacher from the English department, who did not wish to be named, said almost 50 per cent students may not be able to take the exams.

"Students who are in villages, where even electricity is a problem, may not be able to take the exams. We have written to the university multiple times, but there has been no resolution. Students have gone back to their villages and some do not even have study material and internet connectivity. It seems difficult that they will be able to take the exams starting from Monday," a teacher said.

Another teacher, requesting anonymity, said students faced difficulties during the mock exams in uploading the answer sheets and the same problem may arise on Monday.

The DU has said the students shall be given three hours for answering the questions.

Additionally, they will be given an hour for scanning and uploading the answer sheets. Thus, the students will have a total of four hours to complete the examination, including for downloading the question papers, scanning and uploading or e-mailing the answer sheets. Students under the PWD (persons with disability) category will have a total of six hours for downloading the question paper, writing the answers and uploading the answer sheets.