For some, mostly teachers, even 66 per cent is too less to ask for. Others -- obviously, mostly students feel that the discretion to attend or not attend classes should be left to students. Opinions vary. Newsline spoke to a cross-section of people to know their views on the issue.

"The limit should be at least 75 per cent. If a student attends classes, he or she will not have a problem facing the exams or wasting time in obtaining false medical certificates or pleading with teachers," says Devinder Kaur, Punjabi lecturer at the Sector 11 Government College for Girls. Amar Singh, head of the Botany Department, Government College for Girls, Sector 42, is an even more stronger advocate of classroom teaching. "In science, even one lecture missed can throw everything out of gear. How will a student understand? Only in emergency cases should there be a relaxation of about five to 10 per cent attendance shortage," he opines.

Sonia Kanwar of GCG-11 and a BA Part-III student, who represented her college at an international judo tournament at Kazakhstan last year, however, feels that for sportspersons, the limit should be around 40 per cent. "We spend most of our time in camps or tournaments. For those who have to become sportspersons or coaches, what good are classrooms?" she asks.

Pooja Bansal, a first-year student, complains: "In BA, students are doing so much more computers, extra classes, other activities. Those who want to attend should attend, why make it binding for everyone?" "What's the use of attending classes," chips in her classmate and friend Sheetal Sidhu, "when the teachers don't teach and their attendance record is not too good?"Punjab University syndic Rajinder Deepa feels "there is no substitute for classroom teaching". At the same time though, even teachers should be committed in their teaching so that they can attract students, he says.

Dr Rana Nayar, reader in the PU Department of English, feels that a distinction should be made between teaching undergraduates and post-graduates. "Maybe, at the undergraduate level, such guidelines make sense but certainly not at the post-graduate level. The university is not a place where things can be coerced," he remarks.

"True," says PU law student Pratul Sharma. "Such guidelines are impor-tant at the undergraduate level so that students fresh out of school do not lose themselves in their new found freedom. But it makes little sense at later stages," he opines.