The student community has vehemently opposed Nagpur University’s decision to conduct their theory and practical examinations offline
The teachers and students have joined forces in this fight as they fear contracting the deadly virus which hasn’t completely been eradicated from the planet. Hence students are still apprehensive of the offline mode of teaching. Some students stated that they were yet to receive the second dose of vaccination and hence were more likely to get affected by the pandemic.
The examinations are scheduled to be held in the offline mode after a gap of two years, since March 2020 when the pandemic first hit the country. Since then both classes and examinations have been conducted online.
Maharashtra Student Welfare Association (MSWA) president Vaibhav Edke also voiced his protest against the ongoing movement against the NU offline exams. He pointed out that the transportation and the accommodation of students would be a big issue if these exams were to
be held offline.
“Instead, blended mode should be adopted by the university by balancing theory and multiple-choice questions,” he was quoted as saying. He also stated that the syllabus should also be reduced by half as the students were still being taught online.
Outstation students pointed out their difficulty in travelling and mentioned that their hostels were deployed to accommodate covid patients and have not been readied. As the transport sector has not gone back to the pre-covid times, it would be a serious problem for the outstation students to travel from their native places to the city.
A few students talked about how Internet connectivity was still an issue for them and how they have not been able to complete their syllabus ahead of their exams. They will face difficulties while writing theory papers in general.
Professors and principals accused the Nagpur University officials of acting in haste and not considering the ground reality. “NU has entrusted us with offline exams where we have to set the papers, evaluate them and declare the results. It is not possible in such a short period, particularly in the absence of adequate teaching and non-teaching staff. They should have waited for Covid cases to come down further before forcing offline exams on the hapless students,” they were quoted as saying
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