ISLAMABAD, June 7: The students of Quaid-i-Azam University, majority of them from history department held a protest demonstration against the strict enforcement of a rarely implemented 80 per cent attendance rule, on Friday.

Charging the QAU administration of indifferent attitude towards their problems and particularly their demanding for relaxation in the attendance rule, a large number of students gathered before the office of the Vice-Chancellor.

Under QAU rules, students need 80 per cent attendance of total lectures to qualify for terminal exams but in most of the departments the rule is not being enforced, therefore students quite often don’t abide by this rule.

However, this year history department announced very early during the session that it intended to enforce this rule strictly and also sent letters to all concerned including the parents of the students.

Some 30 students of the department who reportedly ignored the notices and missed their classes have now been stopped from taking their exam. This has caused these students and their supporters to resort to protest rallies and demonstrations to force their department to relax the rule.

A group of students, while talking to this scribe said attendance had never been a problem and just because of some personal differences with the students, the faculty of History department has taken this decision.

Students, chanting slogans in favour of their demands were of the view that if at all the QAU administration wanted to implement 80 per cent attendance rule, it should be enforced in all the departments of the varsity and not as a tool against some selected students.

A student commented that some teachers develop personal likes and dislikes and accordingly deal with the students, when awarding marks since varsity introduced semester system.

It was under the purview of head of the respective departments whether they went by the rule or not in disregard for the varsity rules. Therefore owing to the non- implementation of the attendance rule on uniform basis in the whole university, students tried to manipulate this non- implementation of the rule in certain departments and the demonstration was one such manifestations, a teacher said.

When contacted, Ms Dushka Hussain Syed, Chairperson, History department said, “Yes, unfortunately the attendance directions have not been implemented in the past but this time we will not allow students to take exams with short attendance”,.

She said the QAU academic council had reiterated early this year its long-standing rule that students who did not fulfil 80 per cent attendance requirement should not be allowed to sit for terminal examinations.

In a statement issued by the history department it was noted that dismal attendance in lectures and the falling academic standards took a collective decision to implement the rule, which had been dormant so far.

At the beginning of the semester the students were told by each teacher that they would have to meet the 80 per cent attendance requirement in order to be eligible to sit for the terminal examinations, it added.

Mid-way through the semester the lists of students not meeting this requirement were put up on the departmental notice boards as a warning.

When the problem persisted, in April the chairperson of the department sent letters to the parents of the students who were not meeting the requirement, alerting them to the danger that their children may not qualify to sit in the terminal examination if they continued to have a shortfall in attendance.

At the end of the semester, when the lists of students who were declared ineligible to sit for the terminal examination was put up on the notice boards, the trouble began.

As part of pressure tactics the students have gone on strike, and this group of not more than 30 affected students are now trying to bring the functioning of the university to a standstill and prevent the examinations from taking place, scheduled to begin on June 10.

The academic standards and law and order at the government institution have been deteriorating over the years, because groups of students have been allowed to hold these institutions hostage and blackmail the administration. How long is the taxpayer going to allow this?, the statement concluded.