This is ridiculous’: Student claims professor insisted on holding class despite Deepavali holiday

Attending a lecture is not how most people would choose to spend a public holiday, but that’s exactly what a group of students from a local university had to do.

One of the students, Kalyani Hema Nair, took to TikTok on Monday (Oct 24) to express her frustration about attending an online lecture on Deepavali, a major holiday.

In her video, Kalyani shared screenshots of her professor’s email and footage of herself attending the lecture. The video was captioned with the hashtag #NTU, indicating that it involved Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

“When your professor insists on having lessons on Deepavali because ‘there’s no other common time to meet to reschedule,'” Kalyani wrote in the video. She also claimed that the professor didn’t see the need to reschedule because “there [were] only three Indian students in the module.”

A quick check by AsiaOne revealed that the professor is from Nanyang Business School at NTU.

The video sparked reactions from netizens who expressed surprise and outrage, with some saying it was “definitely not okay” to schedule classes on a public holiday. One commenter said, “Deepavali is the most overlooked holiday in Singapore… please don’t let him get away with this.”

Another pointed out that public holidays are announced well in advance, and the professor had “all the time” to plan accordingly.

However, other netizens noted that the professor did provide an alternative for students who couldn’t attend on Deepavali, offering a Wednesday afternoon class as an option. The professor also mentioned that “other classes may be available too.”

NTU’s academic calendar for 2022 does list Oct 24 as a public holiday, but also notes that classes typically proceed as normal the following Monday if a public holiday falls on a Saturday.

AsiaOne reached out to Kalyani, who declined to comment further. They have also contacted NTU for additional information.

Earlier this year, in April, a lecturer at the same university found herself in a similar situation when a student cheekily questioned whether it was appropriate to ask for consultations during “wee hours” on the weekend. That incident also sparked a discussion online about respecting teachers’ personal time.