Calcutta University: Students take to streets against offline exams

Calcutta University Friday announced all upcoming semester exams will be held offline, reported PTI.

Kolkata: Fresh protests erupted on Monday (June 6) in Kolkata as university students came to the streets to demand online exams at College Street. Visuals released by news agency ANI shows Calcutta University students staging an agitation against the university’s decision to conduct offline semester exams. This comes after the Calcutta University Friday announced all upcoming semester exams will be held offline, refusing to buckle to demands by a section of agitating undergraduate students who want online tests which were the norm during the two years when the Covid-19 pandemic raged through the country. The students, however, refusing to concede are demanding that exams for this semester take place in offline mode.

Kolkata, West Bengal | Calcutta University students demand online exams, continue to protest on road at College Street pic.twitter.com/N4YsxK1gTa

— ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2022

The decision to conduct offline exams was taken by the Calcutta University senior panel after clear deliberations.

CU Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee told PTI, that the members of the highest decision making body of the institution, Syndicate "unanimously" decided to conduct the upcoming semester exams in offline mode.

On the claims by students, that in-person classes at the campus have taken place only in the past two months resulting in gaps in their tutorials, the VC said in her statement."Syndicate took the decision and also decided that all the Principals of affiliated colleges will be well- advised to take steps to arrange special classes to complete courses immediately according to the syllabi, if not already done."

Students of Calcutta University have been protesting against the offline exams as the majority of classes took place in online mode. Around 200 students recently demonstrated outside the varsity's main campus at College Street, claiming that two months of classroom teaching was not enough for finishing the syllabus of a six-month semester and holding offline examinations.

(With inputs from agencies)