Private college students appear for exam at govt institutes in Ludhiana

Amid the boycott university examinations duty by private colleges, students of these institutes on Thursday, appeared for exams at makeshift centres designated by the Panjab University

Amid the boycott university examinations duty by private colleges, students of these institutes on Thursday, appeared for exams at makeshift centres designated by the Panjab University.

On Wednesday, students appearing for the exams were taken by surprise after they received official communication that they would have to appear for exams on Thursday. (Manish/HT Photo)

On Wednesday, students appearing for the exams were taken by surprise after they received official communication that they would have to appear for exams on Thursday at centres set up in various government schools and colleges.

Earlier, the University had cancelled the exam on May 31, owing to the boycott call by private colleges, who are protesting against setting up of the Centralised Admission Portal by state government.

There are as many as 26 private colleges in the district, from where the examination centres were shifted to government schools and colleges by the Panjab University. The notification regarding the same was issued on Wednesday.

Students said that after the exam was postponed on May 31, many of them had thought that the exam for remaining subjects, will also be postponed indefinitely.

However, the schools where the exams were conducted on Thursday, include GSSS Jawahar Nagar and RS Model Senior Secondary School, Residential School for Meritorious Students, GSSS Dakha (Boys), GSSS (Girls), Govt College of Science and Education Research Jagraon, Kishori Lal Jethi School Khanna and AS Sen Secondary School Khanna. Government school teachers of these schools had been deployed at the examination centres for duties, while charge of controller was given to the principals.

The centre for Kamla Lohtia SD College, Arya college, GGN Khalsa College, GHG Khalsa Gurusar Sudhar, Shree Atam Vallabh Jain College, Govind National College, Mai Bhago College for Women was shifted to Satish Chandra Dhawan Government College.

A lecturer here said, “We were informed by the University on Wednesday evening that centres of seven private colleges have been shifted to our college, after which the leaves of all professors were cancelled and last-minute preparations were made.”

Khushpreet, a student of humanities, who appeared at the centre at Meritorious School for the home science exam which was conducted in two shifts said, “As I was regularly getting updates from classmates through WhatsApp groups, I got to know about the change in examination venue around 10pm.” She said last-minute announcement of exam centres caused inconvenience to students who use public transport to travel from far-flung areas.

She said that one of her friends faced inconvenience after she first went to the earlier designated exam centre at her college, where she got to know about the change in centre.

Pursuing her graduation with a specialisation in maths, Prabhjot Kaur said that the college managements should not cause inconvenience to students by boycotting exam duties and find other ways to protest.

Meanwhile, the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which consists of the Management Federation of Unaided Colleges, principals’ association, and PCCTU observed the boycott on second straight day.

What is Centralised Admission Portal

The Centralised Admission Portal (CAP) will enable students across the state to take admission to any college in the state based on merit, without physically visiting the colleges and filling out separate admission forms. The CAP is connected with other government digital platforms such as Digilocker and E-Sewa.