Amid protests and outcry, the students of Christ Deemed to be University, Bengaluru, wrote the first examination of the semester on Monday. Even though a large number of students took it to social media against the conduct of the examinations, they now say that they have no option other than writing the examinations.
"What other option do we have?" asks a student who did not wish to be named. "Since the beginning of the lockdown, we have been stuck in different parts of the country. Many are not in a position to write these online examinations in the middle of the pandemic. Some have had their parents test positive. They're not in the right state of mind too," he says.
He added that a lot of them did not have their study materials which were locked inside their hostel rooms. "For the post-graduate students, the materials available online are not enough to write post-graduate exams," he adds. The students said that they had to pay Rs 50 extra as the exam fee. Even though a few student political organisations had raised their voice against this, they were arrested later.
On Friday, the Karnataka government had announced that it will promote all intermediate semester students pursuing degree and post-graduation courses, including engineering, and diploma courses for the academic year 2019-20 without examinations. However, the order is only valid to government and private universities coming under the purview of the Higher Education Department. Christ, however, is a deemed-to-be University and is guided by the UGC Regulations and Guidelines. The UGC, earlier this month had asked the universities to complete the examinations by September 2020.
