Kolkata: Surendranath Law College has issued a notice, offering students an option for online classes to make up for their attendance shortfall.
Students are required to have a minimum 65% attendance to be allowed to appear for their semester exams. At Surendranath Law College, 700 out of 900 students were initially found with attendance lower than 65% that barred them from filling their exam forms. In protest, a group of students reportedly confined the vice-principal Mohammadi Tarannum to her office for two days and then, forced her to resign.
While students boycotted classes on Monday, Tarannum returned to the campus on Tuesday and broke the stalemate. Calcutta University granted the law college an extended deadline to fill forms for exams in semesters 2, 4, 6 and 8 and the campus authorities on Wednesday started preparations for students’ document verification ahead of the final date of Sept 21.
“Students have to attend classes. There is no alternative. Whatever they did in the previous govt time is over and they have to change their mindset. They have been given a chance to make up for their attendance deficit and they must utilise it to attain the attendance required to take exams,” vice-principal Mohammadi Tarannum said.
The college has published a list of candidates with their attendance details. A notice issued by the vice-principal reiterated that attendance in scheduled online classes was mandatory: “Every student concerned is hereby directed to attend every class as per the notified routine and to comply with all instructions… .” The notice also asked the teachers to conduct classes online and record attendance in the ERP.
Tarannum said, “We are making the best possible arrangements for students to be able to appear for exams with the minimum attendance, set by the Bar Council of India. But if after all these efforts, they still skip classes and fail to meet the minimum attendance, they must be ready to deal with the consequences.”
Before the deadline, the college will release a final attendance record of the 700 students and will allow only those who meet the 65% criterion to fill their forms. The college said submission of forms was not an unconditional confirmation of attendance, students must fulfil the conditions.
Prajjwal Santra, an 8th-semester student, said, “We are not against attending classes but earlier, our attendance depended on Trinamool events we went to. Now, several students have sent a declaration that from the next semester, they will attend every class. They have sought relief this one time.”
