The teachers at Jawaharlal Nehru University have asked President Ram Nath Kovind to scuttle the university administration’s plan to hold the end semester examinations remotely, saying that such a move risks making the central university a “laughing stock of academia the world over.”
“He (the university’s Vice Chancellor) wants the question papers for examinations of all courses to be sent to students registered for them. Students are expected to then write their answers in their homes, hostel rooms or anywhere other than the classrooms where these examinations normally take place,” the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) said in an open letter to the President on Wednesday.
“They are then supposed to submit these answers after a few days – and acceptable modes of submission include not only submission through e-mail but also in the form of WhatsApp messages,” added the letter, signed by JNUTA President DK Lobiyal and Secretary Surajit Mazumdar.
At a meeting of deans of schools and chairpersons of special centres on December 16, presided over by Vice Chancellor Dr M Jagadesh Kumar, the university authorities decided that they would conduct the end-semester examination through WhatsApp and email. The decision was taken to circumvent the ongoing boycott of the examination by the students, who are protesting the hostel fee hike.
The decision to hold exams remotely, however, hasn’t found favour among the teachers, who say that the integrity of such an examination process would always be questionable.
“Oral examinations are also supposed to be conducted by this kind of method – by converting them into written examinations!” the teachers said in the letter.
The move to hold remote examination by the university followed directions from the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) last week to bring to end the ongoing stalemate between students and the university administration over the hostel fee hike. The MHRD asked the university to address the students’ concerns before considering an extension of the semester to conclude the examination process.
On top of destroying the university’s academic reputation, the move would also be in violation of provisions of the JNU Act, Statutes and Ordinances, the teachers have claimed.
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