Outstation students in a tizzy over examinations at Panjab University, affiliated colleges

Panjab University has around 9,000 outstation students in various courses as per the recent National Institutional Ranking Framework data

As chaos and confusion persists amid surging cases of Covid-19, the outstation students studying at Panjab University and its affiliated colleges in Chandigarh say that they are worried about how and when examinations will be conducted.

The distress among students has been further aggravated by multiple fake circulars and posts about exams that are doing the rounds on social media (HT FILE)

In Chandigarh, sizeable number of student belongs to Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

In the city’s 11 colleges, around 25,000 students are outstation candidates whereas in PU, the number stands around 9,000, as per the recent National Institutional Ranking Framework data.

Rishabh Kumar, a second year student from Himachal Pradesh said, “Right now we are confused over when the exams will be conducted. I don’t know when I have to start going to college.”

Simran Kaur from Punjab said “My friends and I decided to vacate our paying guest accommodations as they were empty for months. Now if they declare that they are holding the examination, we will have to find a place to live immediately.”

“My parents are worried as Covid-19 cases are increasing at an alarming rate and we will have to visit Chandigarh which is a red zone,” she added.

Saurav Sharma, another student from HP added, “Not only are students worried about shelter and food, but no online classes have also been held. The syllabus is incomplete and students are not prepared to take exams. Many of us are worried that we will fail. The anxiety and fear is very real.”

PU, on the other hand, says that they are doing their best to reach out to students.

Parvinder Singh, PU’s controller of examination, said there are more than 200 distress calls for clarification at the helpdesk daily. He said around 800 to 900 queries have been dealt with already.

“I have instructed my staff to classify all queries into categories including genuine, priority, regular and fake which will be put up on the university’s website,” the registrar said.

The distress among students has been further aggravated by multiple fake circulars and posts about exams that are doing the rounds on social media. Singh said multiple FIRs have been registered against those spreading such fake news.

“In fact, in one of the fake circulars, my signature was also forged,” he said.

He further clarified, “In line with the government of India guidelines, examination for outgoing classes (final year students) will be conducted now. Considering the academic loss, students will be given 70 % choice in the examination,” Singh said. “At least 20 days time will be given to students before the examination starts. We are considering every aspect before finalising the date sheet,” he added.