By Santosh C. Panda
(A letter to Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University on Semester System)

Dear Professor Pental,
I am writing this note after hearing you in the meeting in Economics Department. I must confess at the outset that I was disappointed with your response to the queries put by teachers. I was expecting that you will give a road map of how to overcome the difficulties that we are going to face if we go for semester system. Instead, you kept on citing examples of European Universities who have successfully implemented semester system. To counter this, one could give examples of many British Universities which do not follow semester system and still achieve academic excellence. This includes Oxford, Cambridge and London School of Economics. So, it is fallacious to argue that excellence can only be attained if we adopt the semester system. The moot question is which one suit us better given the bottlenecks we have in our system. Just citing examples of European Universities doesn’t solve our problems. It is impossible to convince people by saying that we should adopt semester system since Europe does it because the structure and functioning of European universities is so much different from University of Delhi. None of the European Universities are like Delhi University having 83 affiliated colleges with an archaic system of centralised paper setting and evaluation handled by a grossly inefficient examination branch! You cited the recommendation of the Knowledge commission. Knowledge commission members have no knowledge about the complicated structure of Delhi University. Examples of IITs, NITs having semester system doesn’t help us since they are just comparable to one College of Delhi University. However, inspired by them, you seem to be determined to push the semester system at the undergraduate level in a few months! That makes all concerned teachers worried. Instead of addressing the systemic problems and correcting those to make a semester system work, you seem to be only interested in introducing the system somehow. We are scared to think that this may lead to chaos and probably you may not be there to redress it!
I have put in 26 years now in Delhi University and have been closely associated with exam process for Undergraduate programme for as many years. In order to make you aware of the lengthy process involved in our paper setting, let me narrate to you the process involving finalization of question papers for B.A. programme and B.A. Honours in Economics. For B.A. programme, a faculty member from DSE chairs the paper setting board and the board is asked to set between 30 to 40 question papers in one paper!

Always there is shortage of paper setters and finalizing such a large number of
question papers require a minimum of 5 meetings of 3-4 hours each! Since there are three papers in Economics in B.A. programme, old B.A. Pass course and B.Com, there are practically nine boards operating at the same time and the process takes at least a month and a half. I have done this work for nearly twelve years. With semester, since you haven’t visualized any change in the paper setting process, it has to be done twice in a year! Come to B.A. Hons now. The Head has to practically run after people to make them agree to set a paper. Since the paper setter is asked to set 3 question papers and is asked to be the head examiner, rarely teachers are willing. There is no mechanism in
place to distribute this load uniformly among all teachers. So, you can’t penalize anyone for not accepting this responsibility. The moderation board, which largely consists of faculty from DSE, meets at least 4/5 times spending about 20 hours to finalize question papers! Since there are multiple question papers in one paper, balancing act has to be done so that each question paper is equal in rigour. All this is time consuming and we have been doing it sincerely year after year. To do it twice over in a year, is scary!
Remember that this is what a faculty member in Economics Department does for the undergraduate paper setting in addition to his/her own responsibility in M.A. If semester system is to be introduced, you must change this paper setting procedure because
this lengthy process is untenable.

Now let us look at grading. The exam branch takes at least one week to assign the fictitious roll numbers. Then the bundles come to the central valuation centre. It has been really difficult to find teachers to do evaluation work. In spite of all your efforts last year, we could get only 4 examiners in one specific paper and the head examiner had to grade 500 scripts. Compulsory grading work for all teachers hasn’t been enforced. We are able to manage somehow because there is a long summer break which works as a buffer. Exam branch takes nearly a month or more for tabulation. In spite of all efforts last year, many results came out only after 16 July, nearly two months after the exam was over. In the semester system, the load is going to be heavier since minor courses will be taken along with B.A. Programme courses and hence we cannot finalize honours results without finalizing B.A. Programme results. To say that the same system can deliver the result in two weeks time is only day dreaming. There is a problem there and you cannot wish it away. Before introducing the semester system, changes need to be done here. The document on semester system on DU website suggests that fake roll number assignment and revaluation will be done away with. That will be a big mistake.

The idea of 3-4 examiners checking the same script is impractical and will be prone to mistakes and is no substitute for fictitious roll number system. On the one hand you don’t trust your teachers for internal assessment and these marks are moderated; on the other, you do away with fictitious roll number system! This has given DU evaluation system some credibility by maintaining anonymity of students and you plan to do away with this! This is an example of trashing some good practices in a hurry for making something work by hook or by crook.

Teachers raised their concern about the admission process taking too long. In order to make the semester system work, admission should be over within a week of opening of the term. But now admission process goes on till September. Students entering late are academically weaker and need more time to cope with course pressure. We are doing just the opposite by asking them to write the exam in November! Have you thought of ways to ensure that admission process is completed by July 20? There is no mention about this in the document; nor did you address this issue at all.

By introducing semester system in the present setting, the only change you are bringing about is to hold exams twice a year. The cost of doing it is enormous and seems infeasible. But semester system should not be introduced just to hold exams twice a year! The other benefits associated with introduction of semester system such as giving a choice to the student to choose electives within the major discipline are being overlooked. The design of the major is such that we will be forced to cut down the content being covered in Economics Honours now. This will dilute the content of Economics Honours programme and teachers are apprehensive that this will lower the value of Economics Honours degree from this University. Continuous assessment made by the teacher cannot be trusted by your system and you will appoint some committee to moderate the internal
assessment marks awarded by teachers. So, what is the major benefit of introducing semester system this way?

Semester system is beneficial only if it is implemented in a proper environment where admissions are completed on time, examinations are held and results declared on time, continuous evaluation done by teachers is trusted and students have the option of choosing large number of smaller courses within the discipline to expand their horizon of learning. None of these things seems to be happening. Therefore, what one is objecting to is the way the semester system is being bulldozed in a short span without modifying some of our current practices. Given the complex structure of this University and its enormous size, one is also not clear what exactly can be done. The first thing to try
out is to reform the examination process and show the teachers that the exam branch can actually deliver results.

That day I came to know that all college department councils have opposed semester system. It has been overlooked on the assumption that teachers always oppose change. That is not the story with Economics though. Not long ago, Economics department wanted to change the syllabus but the University resisted it – sat on it for two years! First, on the pretext of sending it for anonymous peer review and then not bringing it up in the AC in time! Every year, teachers of Economics meet at DSE to consider up gradation of reading list and where ever necessary, new readings replace the old. This way, we keep the syllabus up to date. That gives the cutting edge to our Honours programme.

Through years of sincere effort we have made it one of the best Economics Honours programme in the country and the Market recognizes it, so also our peers. It has been possible only through the work put in by teachers in colleges. So, it is not true that teachers are always opposed to change – not in Economics, at least. There are genuine concerns and difficulties about the semester system.

Without addressing these difficulties, if you push the semester system on the plea that AC has approved it, it is going to be counterproductive. So, I will urge you to reconsider introduction of semester system with such haste.

With regards,
Santosh C. Panda
Professor of Economics

(Prof. Santosh C. Panda is former Head of Economics Department at Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University and has been teaching Economics in DU for over 26 years.)