Indian students have rejected calls from universities and colleges to implement online exams. They argued that not everybody will be able to access these exams, and a majority of these colleges were yet to complete their syllabus.
The school lockdowns in India forced many colleges and universities to vacate for home. At the time, many universities and colleges had not implemented an alternative for the face to face mode of learning. Therefore, a system had to be developed fast to ensure that students continued with their education.
However, more than two months later, universities and colleges are still grappling with the implementation of online learning, which replaced face to face classes. Final year students looking to graduate have had to struggle with the system so that they can graduate on their scheduled time.
The problem is, students are needed to take exams at the end of each semester. Universities are now finding it challenging to conduct these exams, considering the exponential increase of coronavirus cases recorded in India over the past few weeks.
Call for online exams
Universities have now decided to implement online exams to help students proceed to the next year and also give final year students a chance to graduate. Although some have offered a hybrid system where students can opt to do offline or online exams, depending on their flexibility, the decision has not been received well across the county.
Students have complained of the decision to implement online exams is ill-informed and will lead to many students failing to access these exams. For many, after schools closed, they headed back to their homes and villages which are remote, with no guarantee of a stable internet connection.
Opposition
This will compromise their ability to sit for these online exams. The lack of resources such as laptops will also hinder students from poor backgrounds from being unable to sit for these exams.
Students from institutions such as Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) have also complained that they are yet to complete their syllabus, although their colleges are insisting on implementing online exams.
These students argued that, if they take these exams, which will cover the entire syllabus, they are prone to fail due to lack of learning materials for the syllabus and teachers are yet to make an effort to continue with the syllabus.
A countrywide outcry calling for the abandonment of online exams has started having an impact on these institutions. There has been progressing and some universities are reversing the calls for online exams.
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