According to the academic schedule for the session 1999-2000, approved by the PU Syndicate in March, classes were to begin from July 14. However, with delayed results and delayed admissions to the university teaching departments and affiliated colleges, teaching is yet to begin in some cases.

In others, where teaching has begun the number of students continue to be very less. "Serious teaching will only begin after the elections are over," says a local college principal. On the other hand, both students and teachers confess that classes are never held beyond March 15 any year.

With teaching beginning effectively from September 6, the number of teaching days during the month will be around 18 in case of colleges and 16 in case of university departments. This would be followed by an eight day autumn recess from September 26 to October 3. The winter recess is scheduled from December 25 to January 2, 2000.

Based on similar calculations, the number of working days available between October 4 and March 15 will be 133 for colleges and 112 for the university. Take away from these 13 gazetted holidays and 12 days for the house examinations: while the colleges will be left with 108 days, the university departments will have to do with 87 days.

"I know because of late declaration of results the admissions have been delayed. We'll have to see what adjustments can be made. At this moment I can only say we'll have to review the schedule," says Prof Paramjit Singh, Registrar, PU. However, says another senior university functionary: "We can't go on putting off things. If the dates of exams are postponed, we will end up in a vicious cycle of continuous delay and the students will suffer."

Teachers confess that while the 180 days norm has never been fulfiled, things have moved from bad to worse this year. "The welfare of the student should be the nucleus of the university system. Unfortunately, it is not so. One of the solutions is to cut down on the time spent on evaluation. If the system is decentralised there is no way that the results cannot be declared within a month of the exams having ended," opines S. P. Dhawan, former member of the PU Academic Council.

Says Dr Rana Nayar, reader at the PU Department of English, "The norm should be followed in letter and spirit. The university should create the academic schedule around the 180 teaching days rather than trying to squeeze in the teaching days between holidays and vacations."

Dr M. Rajivlochan, Secretary of the PU Teachers' Association, says that while the university system is to blame, a section of the teaching community will have to share the blame for not taking their profession seriously. "The tragedy is that the UGC and the university have failed to make the teaching profession a round-the-clock exercise. We have asked the V-C from the side of the PUTA to lay down norms as to what constitutes good research and good teaching but that has not happened so far," he says. Rajivlochan suggests that the "impractical and faulty norm" be scrapped and instead each course be moduled on the basis of total number of teaching hours required to complete the syllabi. "The teaching hours should be completed irrespective of the holidays," he stresses.

The principal of the local GGDSD college Dr A. C. Vaid is extremely critical of the university's "casual" attitude towards the academic schedule. "Ours was the only university in the region which kept on postponing the exams this year. May be the university could think in terms of increasing the number of periods that a teacher must teach every week," he says.

Amarjyot Singh, a student of the PU Physics department says that the university would do well by sticking to a six-day week. "At least they (the teachers) will reach somewhere near completing the syllabi," he retorted.