World burns, ELFU learns: EFLU students want exams postponed, conduct e-protest

The students of the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad conducted a Twitter strike on Wednesday, against the administration's decision to conduct the examinations on the previously scheduled date, despite the nationwide lockdown. A large number of students, led by the EFLU Students' Union tweeted yesterday using the hashtags #DigitalDivide, #ExtendTheSemester, #EfluAdminRollbackCircular, #PandemicCannotBeExamTime and #WorldBurns_EFLULearns.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the university was closed and the students were asked to vacate the hostels on March 19. However, the university had soon sent circulars stating that it would resume classes online. Also, it had decided to conduct the examinations online, from May 5 to May 13. "This is a health emergency. In this situation, the least our university could do is postponing the examinations, like what the University of Hyderabad did," says Harshal Deshpande, Vice President, EFLUSU. "Sure the classes are held online, but not a lot of students have access to technology to attend these classes. Also, most of them are not in a position to prepare for the examination," he says.

They have also sent a letter to the administration regarding this issue. "Differently abled students find it difficult to appear for the examination online from places where they're stuck right now. The same applies to students from remote areas and has no or less access to the internet," it reads. It also asks the administration to conduct the examinations in the last week of May.

Harshal says that the students are yet to hear back from the university's administration about this. "It has also not extended the deadline for the final year students to submit their dissertation. Now, a lot of them would need to refer the library books to write their dissertation and not a lot of these journals are available online," he says.

The students have now decided to conduct another campaign, where they would send mass emails to the administration. The EFLUSU has also released a google form, asking the students for their suggestions on how to tackle this issue.