Students' group KYS condemns Delhi University for starting 'profit-driven' courses

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Students' organisation Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) on Sunday condemned Delhi University's (DU) School of Open Learning (SOL) for starting vocational courses, like nail art, AC and refrigerator repairing, calling these as 'profit driven' courses.

KYS Convenor Bhim Kumar in a statement said, "Starting new courses under the aegis of Centre for Innovative Skill-Based Courses (CISBC) seems to be narrowing the educational and professional horizons of students from disadvantaged backgrounds."

Students, who are pushed towards SOL because of the chronic shortage of seats and the failure to adequately expand regular college infrastructure, deserve the same breadth of academic and professional opportunities as their counterparts in DU's regular colleges," the KYS said.

The SOL students' inability to access regular college education cannot become an excuse to institutionalise unequal educational and career prospects, it added.

The contrast is particularly telling at DU-SOL's Keshavpuram campus, where facilities for AC and refrigerator repair, nail art and RO repair are visibly housed and advertised, it said.

Meanwhile, among the courses listed on the Centre's own skill-course catalogue, those with potentially broader academic and professional applications, such as Python programming, appear conspicuously absent from the campus facilities on display, it added.

Students are instead expected to pay substantial additional fees for several such courses, raising serious questions about their accessibility, actual availability and the university's priorities, the statement said.

The KYS opposes reducing the educational possibilities of already disadvantaged students to narrowly defined, high fee, short-term certifications while denying them the academic support, internships, placement opportunities and institutional resources they deserve, the students said.

The SOL students need a university that invests in their education, recognises their potential and expands their horizons.

"Distance learning must not mean distance from quality education and equal opportunities. The KYS demands that these courses be immediately stopped and CISBC be disbanded and the focus should be on ensuring quality education," the statement said.

--IANS

rch/khz