The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune plans to conduct an online examination for its final year master’s students from July 1 despite the government’s announcement on cancellation of exams.
The university offers masters in international business, economics, agribusiness economics and finance. The institute responded to the students that it shall hold the online exams from July 1 to 18. Around 160 students are set to appear for the exam.
However, the students are not satisfied with this decision and they wanted the university to cancel the exam as per the government’s announcement. The exam will take place for a duration of one and a half hours. During the exam time, the students will be asked to turn on their microphone and camera in their laptops. The invigilator will monitor the students strictly.
The controller of examinations said that If your laptop connection and systems do not work correctly during the exam time as per advised manner, you will not be allowed to continue in the online exam. However, you will be allowed in the offline exam, whenever the government permits to conduct it. This will delay your result.”
A final year student expresses that “For the past few days, especially during rainfall, we have power cuts. It is difficult for me to change the location. Since some time, I have been dealing with mental health issues. The announcement of exams has added to the stress.”
The director Dr Rajas Parchure notified that they are not violating any rules. The exams are conducted in a healthy environment. The students are not asked to travel anywhere and that they are asked to write from their homes. The director further added that those students who could not make will be given a fair chance to reappear.
In a recent report, the Ministry of Human Resource Development asked the UGC to form the guidelines for cancellation of exams. The Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on June 26 declared that the government has decided to cancel the final year, final semester exams for both non-professional and professional courses and that the students shall be graded based on their performance in previous semesters and in internal exams.
As per the survey, at least 84% of the students do not possess good infrastructure facilities for online exams. Around 50 % of the students don’t have a clear idea in the method of conduction of the exam.