Calcutta University students protest demanding exams in online mode

KOLKATA: A day after Calcutta University appointed panels recommended conducting UG and PG semester exams offline , a section of students protested before the University's College Street campus on Friday and demanded online tests. Holding placards which listed their demands, around 100 students, shouted slogans after assembling before the Asutosh Building. The demonstrations continued for two hours.

"No offline classes had taken place in the past two years. There were only online classes due to which our syllabus could not be completed. If the authorities force us two write our papers offline, how can we score well in the examinations? We demand at least this time we be allowed to give online tests," Sougata Majumdar, a post-graduate student, said. Earlier this week there was a violent protest and `gherao' by a section of Rabindra Bharati University students gainst the decision to hold offline examinations but the authorities refused to bow down to their demands and insisted the students would have to write their papers offline.

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Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) state President Trinankur Bhattacharya told PTI "a section of students have taken part in the demonstrations but TMCP is not involved." "In many higher educational institutions, offline classes could not be held for a greater part of 2020-21. In some places, the percentage of offline classes was 20 per cent, and in some, 30 per cent. We had left it for the respective heads of institutions to take individual decisions considering all factors," Bhattacharya said when asked about the stand of TMCP on the issue.

COVID-19, Mode of Exams

CU Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakrabarty Banerjee said in a statement on Friday that chairpersons of the undergraduate boards of studies and members of the PG faculty councils separately recommended in favour of offline tests at the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) levels, but a meeting will be held with Principals of the affiliated colleges on May 27, for their views on the mode of examinations. All these views and recommendations will be placed before the Syndicate on June 3 for final consideration, she had said.

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Earlier, Jadavpur and Rabindra Bharati Universities had announced holding offline exams in both UG and PG levels for different streams. Kalyani University has announced holding the exams on online mode. Due to the pandemic, semester exams in the last two years had to be held online in different higher educational institutions, and the agitating students were demanding that the semester exams be held in a similar fashion this year as they had not been able to attend offline classes in-person.