Lack of laboratory is playing hard on the practice of IT students. Nearly 3,000 students who are pursuing higher education in the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Mumbai University’s IT department through distance learning have been stranded in the middle, with the computer laboratory at the university being un-operational for the past one and a half year. Students pursuing B.Sc and M.Sc in IT under the University’s Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) programme have found it hard to perform their practicals as the only IT lab the university’s Kalina campus is shut.
Aggrieved students have knocked the doors of university officials, requesting them for alternative arrangements at the earliest. Speaking on the occasion, they said, “The university is not giving them the much needed facility for the subject. Most students who opted for the course through the distance learning are working professionals who do not have that much resource to get the latest technology needed for the subject. With exams closing up, stress is mounting on the students for not being able to practice for the practical exams,” said a B.Sc student on condition of anonymity.
Another student said, “At the time of admissions, we were told that lab facilities would be made available in the campus itself. But the lab here is non-functional. When we voiced our trouble, we were asked to practice in Kandivali West where the lab can barely accommodate 10% of the total students.”
THIS IS ELUDING THE STUDENTS FROM PERFORMING PRACTICALS
As per Sanjay Vairal, an ex-senate member of the university, the concerns of the students are falling on the deaf ears of the university officials. “IT cannot be done without practical work. This has led to the teachers telling the studentsd to submit written assignments instead of practicals. What is the point of conducting a course for which there is no basic infrastructure?” he asked.
Fifty marks in each of the five subjects are allotted to assignments and practical work. Students said that in the absence of adequate infrastructure, the university cannot evaluate them.
Dr Ambuja Salgaonkar, Director, IDOL, refused to give his version of this issue. However, an IDOL official, on the condition of anonymity, said that this issue has already been raised with the university by them. “The old computers at present are not apt for student training, new computers might be made available from the next semester, he said.
