A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) on Wednesday postponed all its semester examinations from December 15. These examinations would now be held only after January 3 when the KTU reopens after the Christmas holidays.
Pro-Vice Chancellor M. Abdul Rahman told The Hindu on Wednesday that the first semester and third semester examinations held on Tuesday and Wednesday would remain valid. If on Tuesday student activists disrupted the examinations in six colleges across the State, on Wednesday the protest spread to 16 engineering colleges. The exams were held as per schedule in all the other colleges.
In response to a question Mr. Rahman said a final decision on holding another examination for those who were unable to write the tests on Tuesday and Wednesday was yet to be taken. The university’s announcement postponing the semester examinations came shortly after Vice Chancellor Kuncheria P. Isaac was ‘gheraoed’ by a group of people, said to be Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists at Feroke in Kozhikode on Wednesday evening.
According to unconfirmed reports the Vice Chancellor later spoke to Education Minister C. Ravindranath about postponing the examinations.
Various student organisations, including the Students Federation of India and the ABVP, had been agitating to get the semester examinations postponed.
Originally the semester examinations were scheduled to begin on December 2 but were postponed following the intervention of the Education Minister. When on December 6 the KTU announced that the semester exams would begin on December 13 the student agitators raised protests.
The main allegation of the agitators was that the KTU was using a private IT firm to conduct its examinations. The varsity has denied this allegation and has maintained that while a Technopark-based firm was contracted to develop the software for the management of the examinations, the actual conduct of the examinations was done by the university staff led by the Controller of Examinations.
Another allegation raised by the students is that the university did not give them 14 days of notice while announcing the rescheduled exams on December 6. Mr. Rahman pointed out that nowhere is it stated — either in the KTU regulations or by the All India Council for Technical Education — that the varsity has to give a 14-day notice while announcing an examination schedule.
