Few takers for Indian languages last year,cut-offs remained low

While the popular Aarts,Science and Commerce subjects saw many aspirants falling short of the 90-plus cut-offs,there were a few Delhi University courses where cut-offs were extremely low due to a shortage of applicants to these courses.

While the popular Aarts,Science and Commerce subjects saw many aspirants falling short of the 90-plus cut-offs,there were a few Delhi University courses where cut-offs were extremely low due to a shortage of applicants to these courses.

Cut-offs for language courses in Urdu,Persian,Bengali,etc.,at university colleges had cut-offs as low as 45 per cent the minimum eligibility to gain admission to a BA (Hons) at DU- when the first cut-offs were released in 2011.

BA (Hons) in Persian offered by Morning and Evening colleges of Zakir Husain College welcomed all applicants in 2011,declaring all eligible for admissions.

Zakir Husain also declared all eligible for admission to Bengali. The course is offered by only two colleges in the university Miranda House and Zakir Husain College. Miranda released no cut-offs last season for the course,asking interested students to contact the college department directly.

We have only eight seats in the course and all get filled. Most students come because of the reputation of the college and not the course, said Pratibha Jolly,principal of Miranda House. At Zakir Husain,there are 25 seats available in Bengali but only 7-10 of them get filled,said the principal of the college.

Bengali (Hons) in our college has few takers. Hence,we give a concession in the cut-off percentage to students opting for the course, said principal Dr Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz.

BA (Hons) Arabic,offered only by Zakir Husain College,had a first cut-off at 57 per cent in 2011. There are 25 seats for BA (Hons) Arabic and 20-23 seats get filled. There has been an increase in the number of students enroling for the course. There are 53 countries where Arabic is spoken and many MNCs need people who know the language, he said.

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BA (Hons) Punjabi is offered by Mata Sundri College for Women,SGTB Khalsa and SGND Khalsa College. Cut-offs for the course ranged from 45 percent at Mata Sundri in the first list of cut-offs last year to 50 percent and 60 in SGTB Khalsa and SGND Khalsa,respectively.

Head of the Punjabi Department in Delhi University Dr Manjit Singh said,There are more options today especially in journalism. There are at least nine Punjabi channels today. Many work as translators for agencies like the National Book Trust,Sahitya Akademi,etc, he said.

BA (Hons) Sanskrit is another course which saw low cut-offs at Delhi University last year. Even in St Stephens College,seats were left vacant for the course.We have 15 seats and an average of 11-12 students enroll every year, said Pankaj Mishra,professor at the Department of Sanskrit at the college.

(Ankit Jain is on an internship at The Indian Express)

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