With the delay in the start of evening classes in the DAV and DBS colleges here, the academic year of thousands of students would be spoiled in this session. It is interesting to note that none of the three stakeholders - the management, the State Government and the teachers - is interested in the conduct of these classes. The fourth and most important stakeholders - the students - are paying the price of the delay in the evening classes.
In a landmark decision the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) had directed that a minimum attendance of 180 days is required for a candidate to sit in the University examination. If this yardstick is applied than the students would not be able to sit in this year’s examination even if the state government manages to break the deadlock and persuades the reticent managements of these colleges to start these classes. The state government devised a concept of evening classes to wriggle out of the piquant situation arising out of the HC order which restricted the student enrollment in the colleges of the state due to which thousands of the students failed to get admissions in the colleges.
These left out students started a massive state wide agitation buckling under the pressure of which the government mooted the idea of evening classes. In the DAV College which is the biggest college of the state the tussle between the management and the state government on a minor issue like appointment of temporary teachers caused delay in the admission process. The college management is adamant that the appointment of teachers is its prerogative while the state government is insisting that the temporary teachers for the evening classes would be appointed by a committee headed by the district magistrate. Interestingly when the college administration released the merit list of 1760 candidates the DAV management issued an order in which the entire process of admissions in the evening classes was declared illegal.
The DBS College released the admission list but teachers for these classes could not be recruited due to the standoff between the management and government. The serving teachers also expressed their unwillingness to teach in the classes. The President of DAV student union Paras Goyal said that both the state government and DAV College management are responsible for delay in admissions in the evening classes and the students would be forced to start a massive agitation if the academic year is spoiled. One of a senior official of Higher education department on the condition of anonymity said that the whole concept of the evening classes is flawed and the state government is helpless to deal with the powerful management of private colleges.