Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU), recently released a notification announcing the removal of the half- hour lunch break between 12:30 pm to 1pm from its time table.
The officials of the renowned university, that offers a variety of skill-oriented programs including B.Sc in Aesthetics and Beauty Therapy, Medical and Laboratory Sciences, and BBA in Facilities and Hygiene Management, stated that short breaks that the students are given throughout the day should be enough for lunch since students are considered ‘grown-ups.’ This decision by the university was met with severe criricism and backlash from the students as they protested against the change.
“Earlier, we used to get a lunch break from 12:30 pm to 1 pm, which was included in the timetable. However, now the university has removed it and arranged back-to-back classes from 9 am to 5 pm without giving any reason,” a student stated on condition of anonymity.
The student additionally claimed that their lunch break had been carefully omitted from the timetables across all of the twenty-twocampusues of DSEU in Delhi.
DSEU Joint Director (Academics) Kamna Sachdeva when questioned regarding the change in the time tables asserted that the university plans to develop a centralised time table for all its campuses in accordance with the NEP policy (National Education Policy) 2020 and thus the lunch breaks from all the campuses have been removed.
She went on to mention that the teachers have been asked to relieve students from their classes five minutes early in order to give them to time finish their lunch before their next class.
“It is not required to put the half-hour lunch break in the schedule. We have asked directors of every campus to give a lunch break if their timetable slot permits. The students can be freed five minutes early from their class to have lunch, which is a sufficient time period,” Sachdeva told a media source.
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“The change has been introduced because we have created a centralized timetable in accordance with NEP 2020 to help students attend classes at any DSEU campus near their home. They are jittery because they don’t see the lunch break in the new timetable, but they don’t understand it is for their own benefit. We don’t want them to stay back on campus for long,” she added.
She further clarified that the university runs its classes in shifts with the first batch of students finishing their classes by 1:30 pm in the afternoon.
“These students don’t require a lunch break as they can leave for home when their classes end. These are undergraduate students, not school students, who would require lunch breaks. Those students whose classes end at 1:30 pm already come after having breakfast,” she added.
The Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University is a well-known collegiate public state university that was established in 2020. It has twenty-two operational campuses across the national capital. Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena serves as the chancellor of the university.
