Evening colleges on way to becoming new favourite of students

Students interested in part-time jobs or professional courses to go with their college education are increasingly opting for evening colleges in the Delhi University. With the cut-off gap between the regular and evening colleges narrowing, the stereotype that only low scorers and male students study in evening colleges is being challenged.

According to Dinesh C Varshney, a teacher at Motilal Nehru (Evening) College, students who want to enrol in a professional course, come to the evening colleges as it suits their timings. “Evening colleges also see larger number of students from the vulnerable section that prefers doing part-time jobs during the day. Since classes here usually begin after 2 pm, they make an ideal option for those who wish to earn while they learn. Now one can no longer say that the quality of students in evening colleges is lower than that in morning colleges,” he said.

P.K. Khurana, principal of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Evening) College, said the common notion of having only male students, limited courses and low scorers in evening colleges has changed over the years. “Since almost all evening colleges are co-educational colleges, the gender ratio is improving in all of them. The intake of students is getting better with each passing year. About 45 per cent girls are currently studying in our college. The perception of low placements in evening colleges has also come a long way because now even evening colleges are providing on-campus placements. We also offer various opportunities for extra-curricular activities such as dramatics, dance, music, fine arts and debates,” he said.

This year, there was a drop of 3 to 5 per cent in the first cut-off list of evening colleges as compared to the morning colleges. Although the cut-off percentages in most evening colleges have gone up over the years for the general category students, getting admission into an evening college seems to be an easier task than joining a morning college. For instance, Dyal Singh (Morning) College had declared its first cut-off for English Honours at 98 per cent but it dropped to 95 per cent in Dyal Singh (Evening) College.

According to Pawan Kumar Sharma, principal of Dyal Singh (Evening) College, the evening colleges have transformed not only in terms of infrastructure but also demography. “Students joining the evening colleges come from all the states of India now, whereas until a few years ago, it was only about Delhi students. Also a very substantial number of female students are also opting for evening colleges. With this, the discipline of the college has improved and being maintained as the students coming to evening colleges are serious, full-time students making such colleges very much like mainstream ones. The cream of the student population is looking at these colleges as a good option.” Some of the evening colleges have also been turned into morning colleges. One such college includes Ramanujan Colle ge, which was formerly known as Deshbandhu (Evening) College. “Earli er, there were very few courses we had on offer but looking at the increasing strength of students we have planned to add more courses. With our college receiving an A-grade from NAAC, it shows how far we have come in terms of day colleges even. Our results have improved by more than 30 per cent. The male-female student ratio in our college is 50:50 and the cut-off has increased by almost 20 per cent,” said principal S.P. Aggarwal.