Rourkela: Even as the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) is yet to announce the dates of final semester examinations, the students have appealed to cancel it on several grounds.
In a letter to the BPUT authorities, the students said since most of them belong to rural areas and don’t have own laptop or high-speed internet connection, it will not be feasible for them to appear at the online examination as proposed by the state government.
The government in a notification on June 19 had directed the universities including BPUT to conduct final semester examinations of all courses online in the first week of July and declare the results by July-end.
On its part, the university has asked the students not having access to internet to take the examination in nearby exam centres or use computer facilities of professional/technical institutes of the government like ITIs and polytechnic institutes near their homes.
Expressing their reservation on the university’s direction, the students pointed out that it may lead them to get infected by coronavirus. Besides, they claimed that open book system of examination is not possible as 99 per cent of the students have left their books at their hostels while leaving for home following lockdown.
They also objected to the MCQ pattern of online examinations on the ground that preparing with the new pattern within such a short notice is not admissible and it may affect their career.
Under the circumstances, the students demanded cancellation of the online examinations and wanted the university to award grades on the basis of the marks obtained by them in the previous semester.
