Not all open to DU’s open book exam idea
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Two days after Delhi University announced the possibility of open book online examination for its final year students amid the Covid-19 pandemic, stakeholders are still deliberating on the feasibility of the mode.
On Thursday, DU had announced it may conduct an open book online examination for final-year students if the Covid-19 situation prevented holding examination in the regular pen-paper mode.
On Saturday, several heads of departments held a meeting with the administration. “Around 20 heads of departments came together against the arbitrary and autocratic decision of the university administration to impose an open book examination through the online mode,” said Rajesh Jha, member of the varsity’s Executive Council.
“It has been conveyed to the university administration that there are problems of accessibility by the students, especially from marginalised background, rural and remote areas. The sudden change in the examination scheme without following the statutory path will catch the students off-guard,” he added.
Raj Kumar, head of the English department at DU, said, “There were discussions on the possibility of both the online and examination modes during the meeting. Suggestions were given by the HODs to the Dean (Examination).”
Despite repeated attempts, the Dean(Examination) was unavailable for a comment on the matter.
“This type of examination will promote a type of discrimination among the students at different levels. Only students with resources can benefit more in this exam,” they said.
The DU students’ union also held a meeting with various student and teacher representatives on Saturday to discuss the matter. “We have to look for multiple options to conduct the examinations rather than emphasising on only a single one so that the drawbacks of the single option are overcome by the alternative one,” said DUSU president Akshit Dahiya.
