"As far as I remember, scheduled exams were never postponed in the past because of a student union program," said Madhav Sharma, Vice Chancellor (VC) of TU. "I am disappointed. It gives us a wrong precedent. What will I say to other student unions if they asked us to postpone any exams in future?"[break]
Earlier, on Sunday, the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE), TU, had deferred some exam papers scheduled between December 9-15 and December 31-January 7, citing the All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R)´s upcoming 18th general convention that will take place December 10-15 in Kirtipur.
VC Sharma said he was not involved in the OCE´s decision to postpone the ongoing exams. "As I was out of town, no one consulted me. The decision was taken by the examination board," he said. However, Bhim Raj Adhikari, registrar of TU and also chairman of the board, contradicted Sharma.
"A board meeting need not be called to dwell over such trivial matters," Adhikari told Republica. "The OCE can change pre-scheduled exam dates on its own. So, nobody briefed me either about this decision. I learnt about it only through the newspapers."
Pradip Poudel, president of Nepal Student Union (NSU), did not directly criticize the OCE decision to postpone the ongoing exams. However, he flayed TU for setting a wrong precedent. "We cannot comment on other student unions´ affairs," he said. "But, this has definitely started a wrong practice."
Ram Kumari Jhakri, immediate past president of All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), said: "Student unions should not conduct any kind of big event, a general convention in this case, which affects the university´s yearly educational calendar. We can always find lots of days in the university calendar when there are no exams or important events scheduled."
Jhakri said some student leaders within her own union wanted to organize the ANNFSU´s 20th general convention on dates that would affect TU exams. "Some friends talked of postponing the exams," she said. "But, I opposed it. Finally, we held the convention but skipped over the exam dates."
Jhakri says that against the backdrop of the wrong precedent, the country´s largest university may from now onwardd always be forced to postpone prescheduled exams over and over again, giving in to other student unions´ political demands.
Around 90,000 students at Bachelor´s and 30,000 students at Master´s level sit for TU exams every year. In the last few years, they have been taking longer to complete their courses, owing to TU´s disrupted yearly calendars.
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