Colleges have been hit hard by the lockdown. Schools and colleges were the first ones to be closed when the pandemic was announced.
Not only fests have been cancelled but farewell and convocation of final year students are also not likely to happen. Students are discouraged as they have been sitting at home waiting for the lockdown to terminate.
Online classes have been started by the faculty but we can’t deny the verity of the fact that online classes are helpful to only those who can afford them.
Good network, availability of study material, peaceful milieu, and access to technology is not in the chunks of everyone out there. And as a result, online classes aren’t much of a success.
Online Examination Form
The University of Delhi released examination form on its official website to be filed before May 15, indirectly communicating its clear intentions to conduct online exams for semesters II, IV and, VI.
The deadline for filing the examination form has been extended to May 31 because many students weren’t able to fill it due to poor internet connectivity and heavy traffic on the website. Since online exam portal crashes every time a student logs in to fill the form, we wonder how they will be able to conduct exams for lakhs of students online.
Students Vehemently Opposing Online Examination
Online classes began and are continuing but this poorly glued idea would not be working for online examination. Moreover, the University will be adopting an alternative mode i.e., Open Book Examination knowing that some students don’t even have a book.
UGC (University Grants Commission) has released a new academic calendar for universities to follow during the lockdown. The UGC has said that the exam for the intermediate and terminal semester will be held in July and it also made some exceptions if the situation remains tense in the coming months.
Also read: Mumbai University Cancels Exams For All Year Students Except Final Year
However, the online exam proposal is relentlessly opposed by the students of Delhi University and the reasons they are putting forward are tenable.
The idea of conducting exams online according to them is not at all feasible, because students of DU come from all walks of life and many went back to their homes during mid-sem break and thus, they don’t have access to a fast Wi-Fi connection, laptops or computers, and even books. Some of them don’t even have sufficient space in their house.
Today on 15 May, students have started a campaign against online examination using #DUagainstOnlilneExams and it’s already trending on Twitter. Various groups have been formed to share an individual’s opinion regarding the same.
Student’s Union of SRCC conducted a survey regarding the feasibility of online examination and also regarding the issues faced by the students’ E-learning process. Approximately, 94% of the students feel that online examination is practically impossible because of the connectivity issues as well as lack of study materials.
NSUI And DUTA Share The Same Opinion With The Students
The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has opposed the Delhi University’s decision to conduct online examinations. In its letter to the UGC, NSUI says, “There are many colleges in DU like Ramjas where online classes were not held and in some colleges like Maitreyi online classes were held only for few courses. It would be unfair for the students to appear for the online examination without the course being completed properly.”
Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) has also opposed the decision. DUTA has explicitly pointed out that online classes can’t be treated as a substitute for regular classes and students should not be evaluated based on online classes.
What Is Wrong With Delhi University?
Mumbai University promoted first and second-year students based on their past performance keeping in view the current situation. Students in Mumbai now must be enjoying their quarantine. However, final year students still have to appear for exams. If DU had learnt something from Mumbai University then #DUagainstOnlineExams wouldn’t have been trending.
If one University can do it, surely, it is not unparalleled to call for Universities to follow suit. How is someone supposed to study in such hard times when every day we hear the numbers of deaths are continuously increasing?
Image credits: Google images
Source: Hindustan Times, NDTV News, DU Express, The Print
Find the blogger: @dikshasingh484
This post is tagged under: #DUagainstOnlineExams, online exams, final year students, Delhi University dean, announcement, laptop, internet connection, Delhi University Teachers Association DUTA, students union, UGC
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While the nation is surrounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the prime minister has announced the nationwide lockdown since midnight on 24 March. As all the educational institutions have shut down temporarily, it is getting complicated for the universities to decide the mode of examinations.
The University Grants Commission has advised the university to either promote the students on the basis of their internal assessment or to reduce the scheduled time from 3 to 2 hours.