After the first wave of COVID had subsided, towards the end of February, Bengaluru's Christ Deemed to be University had sent a circular to its students, informing them that their end semester examinations will be held offline in May. This has now created a lot of outcry among the parents, who have now written to the state and central governments and various MPs including Tejasvi Surya, Shashi Tharoor and Mahua Moitra, seeking action against this move. In a collective letter, the parents suggest that the university conduct its exams online, just like how they did in 2020.
According to a circular by the university, the exams were supposed to begin on May 3 and end on June 26. However, after the number of COVID cases in the country started rising exponentially, the parents have now raised concerns over their wards going to the university to write exams physically. "The total enrolment in the Bengaluru Central Campus (of the university) stands at approximately 18,000-20,000. CHRIST has called a majority of these students without any staggering mechanisms," say the parents in their email. Pointing out that a large number of students are not residents of Bengaluru and will have to travel from places across the world, they say, "We are very fearful since 20,000 students coming to Bengaluru on a single day, travelling thousands of kilometres half-way across India, coming in contact with thousands more, residing in unhygienic PGs not following COVID protocol, meeting with a long time separated friends, will contribute to a huge surge not only across Bengaluru but across Karnataka and India," they wrote.
However, the university's norms do not seem quite strict. In a recent circular, it has said that the students who are unable to write the examinations in May can appear for examinations offline in July or August. "This will be treated as a fresh attempt," it says. "For these students who pass the courses in the re-examinations and meet the graduation requirements, the University will organise a Virtual Convocation in September 2021," it adds. Previously, when the university had decided to conduct its exams online, a large number of students had protested saying that a lot of them did not have access to a good internet connection.
