COVID-19 Lockdown 4: Over 900 DTU Students Petition Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal To Cancel Examinations

DTU final year online examinations

Image credit: Shutterstock image for representation purpose

New Delhi:

Final-year students of Delhi Technological University (DTU) have launched a petition to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the online examinations for final year students, requesting the cancellation of end-term exams.

Drafted by a student, an open letter posted on Change.org, has highlighted the infeasibility of conducting online examinations in India. It has been signed by close to 940 students.

DTU has decided to conduct the end term examinations (ETE) in online mode for the final year students of bachelor of technology (BTech) programme, from May 22 onwards. On May 16, the university released the datesheet for BTech eighth semester exams for Information Technology (IT) and Software Engineering (SE) courses. The notice also contained detailed instructions on how online end term examinations would be conducted. The exams are scheduled to begin from May 22 and will continue till June 5.

Online examination

Opposing the Delhi Technological University’s decision on online examinations, the petition says: “The online exam requires internet penetration throughout. This is highly infeasible for students living in the countryside, in villages and states like Jammu and Kashmir. Many of us do not have the required internet and hardware facilities (webcam availability) to take an online exam with some of us having left our laptops in our respective hostels and Paying Guest (PG) accomodations when we came home thinking the vacation would be brief.”

The students argue in the petition that conducting a two-hour online examination will require an unfaltering internet connection for those two hours. This might not be possible for rural areas and even for students residing in the cities with frequent power cuts.

Offline Examination

DTU has also given a second option to students in case the online examination mode doesn’t work out for them.

The notification said: “Students who are not in position to appear in online ETE due to unavailability of Internet connectivity should apply to COE via an online form (http://reg.exam.dtu.ac.in/oete) along with proper justification prior to the conduct of online ETE. For such students, offline End Term Examination will be conducted after the opening of lockdown and due approval of the competent authority.”

“The students who are either not able to appear or not able to perform well in Online ETE may appear for the same in offline examination along with supplementary examination of even semester 2020, whenever conducted by the university.”

About the offline scenario, the student argues that given the uncertain COVID-19 situation, it may be difficult to predict when the colleges will reopen and when the offline examination would be held. And this uncertainty will affect the students’ job prospects and foreign education programs which require them to provide their graduation transcripts for admissions. The student also says that it might be infeasible to travel back to Delhi just to take the offline examination.

Student’s Suggestions on Evaluation

The student from DTU has suggested that the evaluation be done on the basis of their mid-term exam, past performances, assignments and internal assessment.

Further, the student also emphasizes on the mental stress that the students are undergoing due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the uncertainty about their academic future. The student says, “To sit for an objective paper requires mental preparedness of another level.”

Citing the examples of universities like National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, who have decided to evaluate students using their mid term or past performances, the student appeals to DTU authorities to consider the same.

Currently, all educational institutions are closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and many universities have decided to conduct online examinations during lockdown or offline examinations after lockdown period. The lockdown was enforced on March 25 and has been extended the fourth time till May 31.