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When Allahabad University announced to conduct offline exams on March 24, there was widespread opposition.
University officials acknowledged that the move was “in line with restoration of normalcy” and was taken after a high-powered committee – formed to look into students’ representations against offline examinations – submitted its report pen-and- Paper presented in favor of examination.
University public relations officer Jaya Kapoor said: “Some of the protesting students sprayed petrol on themselves and it became a law and order situation. The administration requested the Vice-Chancellor to reconsider the decision. So, on 25th March it was decided that all the 2nd year students will be promoted and the 3rd year students exam will be conducted online.
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Many universities have decided to conduct offline exams for the semester ending in May-June 2022. But the decision has been opposed in most states, with little clarity on hostel arrangements, exam schedules and hybrid class timetables.
On April 13, Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant announced an additional 15 minutes for each hourly students to sit in an offline test.
Since February 28, students and faculty at Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan, West Bengal have been protesting the decision to conduct offline exams without reopening hostels.
“Initially, when the hostels were not operational and senior batches started attending offline classes on December 1, 2021, the students rented rooms. Since there is limited accommodation in the Shantiniketan area, the first year students were not able to get accommodation. They continued to take online classes and are now hesitant to take offline exams,” said Somnath So, a final year student of BA Economics at Visva Bharati University.
“The 26-day agitation helped us secure our demands and the online examination will start from April 18. The demand for the reopening of hostels has been officially met, but in reality, things are still unclear. So the protest continues,” said Chaiti, a
student in the Department of Art History of the University.
Vice-Chancellor Vidyut Chakraborty declined to comment.
Engineering students of Kolkata-based Jadavpur University are protesting against the decision to conduct offline exams due to lack of accommodation.
“Students in their final semester do not want to move from their hometowns for the remaining few months of their course. Also, no one is ready to rent out their property for a few months,” said Akash Shaikh, a second year student of his Master of International Relations.
However, the university has already released the offline examinations schedule and for some courses the examinations will start from April 24.
Calls to the university’s VC Suranjan Das went unanswered.
In Delhi University, students are demanding that their final semester examinations be conducted online. The university reopened in February and has also decided to conduct offline exams for the students in the second, fourth and sixth semesters.
The semester examination of 1st, 3rd and 5th semester will be conducted in online OBE mode.
“Most of the syllabus is completed online and we have attended only two months of offline classes. Hence, the mode of examination should be modified,” said Himani Singh, a sixth-semester BSc home science student at DU’s Lady Irwin College.
However, DU student welfare dean Pankaj Arora said: “For normalcy to return, we will have to come back to offline examinations.”
He said: “Due to Covid, the ‘odd’ semester was shorter than the normal and we decided to keep their exams online. The duration of the ‘even’ semester offline exams has been extended by 30 minutes. The university will give mock tests to different colleges. Is also ready to issue instructions to conduct.
In Maharashtra, confusion has arisen regarding the format of the final examination. The Maharashtra Students’ Welfare Association (MSWA) has started a social media campaign to “bring uniformity” in the evaluation format by writing to the Chief Minister.
“Final year students will compete with each other for admission to higher education courses and in the job market. If they are evaluated in different formats, the competition will not be fair,” said MSWA President Vaibhav Adke.
While Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and Rashtrasanta Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University will conduct the exams offline, Mumbai University has announced a more “mixed approach” – exams for traditional courses will be online, while for vocational courses it will be offline. Also, many autonomous colleges in Mumbai have decided to conduct the final exam offline.
Vinod Patil, director of Mumbai University’s Board of Examinations and Evaluation, said, “For professional courses, students were writing descriptive answers for 60 marks out of 100 in the last two exams.”
Countering the students’ demand for “uniformity”, he said, “there cannot be equality anyway as the syllabus, syllabus, exam pattern and method of evaluation are different in all universities.”
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