Many students of Kashmir University in Srinagar have again stepped out of their classes to protest on the campus ~ but for a different reason this time round. These students, pursuing their Master's in various disciplines, have accused the varsity authorities of allegedly forcing them to sit for their semester examinations ~ scheduled for the end of this month ~ without ensuring completion of their syllabuses by their teachers.

"This year our university, keeping in view the loss of academic months during last year's unrest in Kashmir, had introduced winter session for us, which commenced on January 2017. But due to heavy snowfall our classes got suspended for about a month, so they could only resume in February. We were supposed to attend sixty lectures per class in sixty working days, but the departments are now hastening the process and compelling us to sit in exams even when we haven’t completed 30% of our syllabuses so far," said a female student on condition of anonymity.

Scores of students gathered in front of the Kahsmir Universty Vice Chancellor’s Secretariat on Thursday to register their protest against "curtailing" their semester duration from at least four months to merely a month. They urged the VC to defer their semester exams on the ground that thir syllabuses have not been covered by their teachers yet.

According to protesting students, there have been just 25 working days so far with respect to their semester classes which started in February rather than January. They have blamed the varsity authorities for "playing with their future" by holding examinations "prematurely". These students are from various post-graduation departments including Biochemistry, Environmental Science, Zoology, Biosciences and Social Studies.

"As there have been very less classes, we have no idea about the subjects in our books. Some of the topics were dictated to us without explaining properly with teachers giving PowerPoint presentations. For rest of the topics we were suggested to go through e-tutorials on the University's website," a Biochemistry student said.

The head of a faculty warned students of "dire consequences" if they attempt to stage any protest demonstration against the varsity's decision. "We were threatened with rustication and cancellation of our admission if we go to VC’s office with our complaint. We did not receive proper lectures and we are still being forced to take our exams. So, our degrees would be mere pieces of papers. The exams are scheduled for this month's end and we have no idea what we are supposed to write in our answer papers," said some Zoology students.

When contacted by The Statesman for the varsity administration's reaction on the issue, the Controller Examination Prof Abdul Salam Bhat said, "We are yet to take any decision on the matter," adding that "When we get the confirmation regarding the completion of syllabuses from heads of different departments, only then we go ahead with the date sheet (exams schedule), otherwise we don’t." 

It is another matter that the varsity authorities have already issued the exams scxhedule for Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Zoology, Math and MCA departments.