Students demonstrated at Calcutta University (CU) on Friday, demanding online exams. Around 200 students demonstrated outside the university’s main campus on College Street, claiming that two months of classroom instruction was insufficient for completing a six-month semester’s syllabus and holding offline exams.
“Classes were only held on campus for two months, and we were expected to write papers covering the entire syllabus.” This is only possible if exams are held in an open book format, as they were the previous two years, according to Arijit Saha, a student at Calcutta University affiliated Bangabasi College.
Similar protests have taken place twice in the last week on the main campus of the university. CU’s two high-powered committees have recommended that the undergraduate and post-graduate end-of-semester examinations be held offline. College principals, on the other hand, have been asked to provide feedback on the recommendation.
Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee, Vice-Chancellor, stated on Thursday that the university will make the final decision after hearing from all stakeholders.
With hashtags like #wewantonlineexams, several students tagged State Chief minister Mamata Banerji and other education department officials demanding online exams instead of offline.
According to a CU official, while the faculty is overwhelmingly in favour of offline exams, some students, including student unions, want the online examination system to continue. Trinankur Bhattacharya, state president of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, stated that general students wanted online exams.
