'Online exams, please!': RTU students write to CM Ashok Gehlot as COVID threat remains
The Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) is set to conduct offline examinations in January 2021. However, this is not going down well with the students as the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic continues. Thousands of RTU students have taken to social media demanding examinations in online mode.
In a poll conducted by the India Wide Parents' Association, as many as 6,886 participants voted. About 98.1 percent of participants favored online examinations.
The students reached out to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for relief as it was not "safe" to conduct offline examinations at this stage. Shooting off a letter to Gehlot and Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra, the parents' body represented concerns of thousands of RTU students and enlisted point-by-point reasoning on why should examinations be conducted online.
"We, students of Rajasthan Technical University, would like to bring to your attention that RTU is planning to hold offline semester exams in the first week of January in the middle of this pandemic when all other private and state-owned universities are opting for online mode. RTU wants its students to come to college from different states and cities just to give the exams," the letter mentioned.
98.1 per cent of participants favoured online examinations.
"Students will travel from different regions and they may carry the possibility of the virus with them. Plus, the entire teaching process was conducted online. At times, teachers were not able to deliver properly, or else we couldn't understand. If classes were conducted online, so should the exams be," the students of the varsity said.
As mentioned in the UGC guidelines that universities can conduct online exams, why is RTU taking offline exams, a university student said in a tweet. On one hand, the Rajasthan government is thinking of the new Covid strain, and on the other hand, risking students' lives, he said.
"We are not even getting the OPTION of online exams that is literally the bare minimum a college can do for you in this pandemic. I mean how can they expect us to give offline exams when they can’t even teach offline," another student wrote on Twitter.
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