DU First-year Students to Re-apply for CUET UG, Fear of Failing Language Exam Due to ‘Advanced’ Syllabus

DU First-year Students to Re-apply for CUET

New Delhi: Delhi University students who have chosen Tamil and Telugu as non-major topics in BA programmes in the last year are reapplying for the Common University Entrance Test-UG (CUET-UG). As per their concern that they would not pass the language exam due to its "advanced" syllabus. According to the New Education Policy, the students pursuing BA Programmes at DU had the option of studying different languages (NEP).

The first-year students, who were also the first batch to be admitted to the varsity through CUET, claimed they thought they would be taught the fundamentals of the languages, but their syllabus is of the advanced levels. In its response to the students, the university stated that they ought to have first read the syllabus and added that they cannot do anything as they have chosen the combination.

The Students at Sri Venkateswara College who chose the BA programmes in political science with Tamil and Telugu have repeatedly requested to switch to Hindi or Sanskrit, but the university has turned down their request. The discouraged students have registered for the CUET 2023–24 entrance exam since they are afraid they would fail the semester.

Earlier, the students had to complete up to Class VIII in the language in order to qualify to take it on as a minor discipline. However, after students brought up this issue, this rule was eliminated.

According to Telugu-chosen first-year Pol Science student Shivam Kumar from Bihar, they were unaware of the eligibility requirements at the time they were asked to choose their preferences. No one called attention to it. Even the universities confirming the applications failed to detect that they don't speak the language. The eligibility criteria was then informed only after they got admission.

However, the students went to the Dean of Admission Haneet Gandhi, who gave the assurance that the rule will be changed. However, as per the document issued in November 2022, the university made no modifications to the yardstick. With no hope in sight, Kumar had submitted a new CUET application. According to the reports, several students have submitted CUET applications.

The future is in jeopardy. The students question how they can take exams when they don't even know the language's letters. Even the authorities have ignored their requests to shift the topics they were discussing. As per a professor at the Department of Contemporary Indian Languages, this difficulty is not exclusive to Telugu and Tamil speakers and affects students who have also chosen to study Bengali, Oria, and Sindhi.

The students are being taught literature at an advanced level despite not knowing the alphabet or the language, she claimed on the condition of anonymity and held the university responsible for this “fiasco” as many students’ future is at risk.

Further, she exclaimed that teachers for a number of languages including Malayalam, Sindhi, or Kannada are not readily available and for Gujarati, there is only one instructor.

According to a student who chose a BA programme in politics and Tamil from Miranda House , she is the only student in the college who has chosen this combination, and a teacher was just recently assigned to her. Rajesh Jha, a professor at DU and a former executive council member, said that the university should prioritise the interests of the concerned students.

The interests of the concerned students come first, and they shouldn't be treated unfairly. In this case real students of Tamil language got disadvantaged due to the goof up by the university administration rather than starting with the fundamentals.

They aim to impart literature to them. He questioned How is that even possible?. Jha continued that CUET's implementation and the centralization of the admissions procedure at DU are to be blamed for such issues.

As per Dean of Admission Haneet Gandhi, the eligibility criteria for studying languages have been removed. When asked if the university would take any steps to ensure that such instances did not occur again in the future, Gandhi responded that they will organise an awareness campaign, but eligibility requirements will not be amended.

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