– Mita Mukherjee

Students of Kharagpur IIT will not be deregistered for low attendance from this academic session, Suman Chakraborty, director of the IIT said.

The authorities have taken the move with the main intention to ensure mental well-being of students in view of spate of students’ suicides on the campus.

“Students will not be deregistered now for low attendance issues. We do not want students to suffer from anxiety and stress because of having low attendance. But students will still be expected to attend class regularly. Deregistration due to low attendance will be discontinued. But regular attendance will continue to be an important component for imparting quality education,” Chakraborty told EducationWorld.

Deregistration will be discontinued once the minutes of the senate meeting are confirmed, the director said.

The authorities will soon finalise the innovative measures that can be taken to engage students in classrooms.

 Shifting from the old practice of punishing students for low attendance, the institute will bring about certain changes in the evaluation system and focus on continuous assessment. Instead of punishing students, attendance will be used as a tool to reward and encourage students.  

Following spate of students’ suicides on the campus, the IIT authorities had taken a decision to review its academic policy and bring some relaxation in the attendance policy in order to strike a balance between academics and well-being of students.

According to a source at the IIT, students would often complain that they were required to repeat courses for low attendance issues. The penalty for low attendance often resulted into severe stress and anxiety among students. “There is a need to ease the academic load,” the source said.

The institute had recently conducted a survey to find out how many students had been deregistered for low attendance and in which subjects the institute recorded the highest number of failed candidates.

Students at the institute had raised concern about the attendance policy and urged the need for reforms as many students underwent stress and anxiety due to fear of being deregistered for low attendance.

Some students said they are required to maintain 75 percent attendance failing which they are deregistered. Another section of students said there is no such prescribed rule and attendance depends entirely on individual teachers.

According to the source, while some teachers are lenient and give relaxation, several teachers are strict about attendance. Once students are deregistered it causes academic setback resulting into mental stress and anxiety. There are instances when students face deregistration for having three percent shortage in attendance, a source said.