Exam season is already upon students and it is reaching a fever pitch. Yet institutes are still grappling with the decision akin to a fork in the road: Whether to go the tried and tested way of conducting exams offline or travel the path less trundled of the online mode? Meanwhile, unanimity has really gone out the window as the circumstances differ at colleges from place to place which also includes the factor of, 'Who wants it more?'
Take for instance Allahabad University. Students there were protesting against the initial move to conduct offline exams. They got their way in the end and now the exams will be held online. But there are differing justifications offering a view into how they got to that bridge. Prof Jaya Kapoor, the spokesperson at the varsity, explains "After the decision to conduct offline exams was taken, there was a huge furore over this and some of the students who were agitating went up to the vice-chancellor's office and even threatened self-immolation. So the district administration stepped in to advise conducting exams in online mode. The modus operandi of the online mode is yet to be finalised."
This is just applicable for the third-year undergraduate students as the second-year students have been simply promoted to the next term. The reasoning for this, as provided by the spokesperson, was that, "Exams would take a lot of time and promoting the students would save their time since the academic sessions are already delayed." According to Prof Kapoor, the majority of students were comfortable with the initial decision for offline exams and that it was the protests of only a handful of students that swung the decision.
The other side of the coin
However, Anupam Jaiswal, a student of Allahabad University begs to differ. He points to the key difference in Allahabad University regarding the undergraduate courses having yearly exams rather than semester-wise. "Since the majority of the year's classes were conducted online, it makes sense that even exams are conducted in this mode. We had taken social media surveys where 60 per cent of the students demanded online exams whereas the rest chose to remain neutral," says Anupam. The institute conducted its own means to understand the ground opinion but the students ignored it citing transparency issues in the results.
Anupam also points to the factor of website server issues when exams were previously held online and that putting a proper system in place would require a vast expenditure on the university's part. "We have been reassured by the institute that since this time, only final year students would be writing the exam online, there would be significantly less load on the server. It remains to be seen how the system would fare this time," Anupam goes on to say.
The scene in Mumbai
The situation of universities in Mumbai is slightly murkier. While most autonomous colleges under Mumbai University have chosen to go the online way for the exams, others like SNDT Women's University in Mumbai will conduct offline exams from May 10. This too comes after the exams were postponed by a week, leading to genuine concerns that the results would be further delayed compared to colleges conducting online exams. This would, in turn, harm the prospects of students who wish to join postgraduate courses in the next academic session. "By delaying the exams, the university has only deepened our troubles. The offline exams would take a huge toll on us since a lot of students have to travel from faraway places to reach the college," says a student from SNDT university who wished to remain anonymous.
Students of SNDT university who spoke to Edex Live, allege that the institute is taking issue with the fact that too many students were able to clear the exams the last time when it was conducted online. "The teachers, if they want, can set questions that are application based so that students are not able to use unfair means while answering them online. The move to give us more days to prepare and a day's break between consecutive papers is just a gimmick. They should have announced completely offline classes and exams only from the next semester," says another SNDT student.
The student also went on to state, on record, the societal trouble that would arise due to girls failing their exams. "The offline mode would place undue stress on us to pass the exams. Many of our families have placed the added pressure of forced marriage upon us if we fail to clear the papers. I hope the university acknowledges these factors as well," the student added.
More views coming in
Siddharth Ingle, Founder President of Maharashtra Students Union (MASU), argues, "There was just a single month of properly conducted offline classes in universities this semester. So, how is it justified to conduct offline exams after so long a gap? Moreover, when classes are being held in hybrid mode, then the choice of exam mode should also lie with the students, right?"
The drop in quality of education is another factor that is being cited as the reason behind the decision taken by the Maharashtra Ministry of Higher Education. "Over the pandemic times, students have got used to easy and convenient ways to deal with their education. We back the government's decision to conduct exams offline as this would maintain the quality of education," says Sachin Bansode, an LLM student and Maharashtra state coordinator of Chhatra Bharati.
Time is certainly of the essence as shown in the instance of the tussle at SNDT Women's University. But more than that, the quality of life lived by the young women may also be at stake. The question of compromising on the quality of education is hence, a tough nut to crack indeed.
