The uncertainty over holding online examination of various undergraduate and postgraduate courses has upset the students of Kashmir University, who in protest, have decided to boycott the online classes.
The students have written to the vice-chancellor demanding the university to follow the recommendation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) regarding the examination. In wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UGC had recommended that the university exams should be conducted for final semesters only, while the students in intermediate semesters should be graded based on an internal assessment of the present and previous semesters.
“The varsity has failed to implement the UGC guidelines for conducting examinations so we have decided to boycott the online classes from Thursday onward,” said Syed Ahtisham Qadri, a spokesperson at Kashmir University Students Committee (KUSC).
He said, “The university is yet to take a call on the examination schedule as we are already running behind the schedule. Even the postgraduate students of 2018-2019 batch had only appeared in their lone semester examinations to date.”
The letter to the VC further stated, “The students are not demanding mass promotion but evaluation as per the UGC protocol that is based on the internal assessment and previous records only.”
The students in the letter also demanded fee concession for this year due to the hardships faced by them due to the coronavirus enforced lockdown.
“There will be no filling up of any online examination forms until the current situation is over. There are many students who can’t afford the telecom charges to hold the online classes,” the letter stated adding that ‘the varsity has been giving too many assignments to students hence putting extra burden on them”.
{{/usCountry}}“There will be no filling up of any online examination forms until the current situation is over. There are many students who can’t afford the telecom charges to hold the online classes,” the letter stated adding that ‘the varsity has been giving too many assignments to students hence putting extra burden on them”.
{{/usCountry}}Dean Academics Affairs Kashmir University, Akbar Masood said that the varsity has not yet taken a call on conducting exams. “Currently, we are holding online classes and monitoring the situation,” he said.
Students of Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) Awantipora and Central University of Kashmir (CUIK) Srinagar have raised similar demands asking the authorities to conduct the examination of various courses at the earliest.