Students protest against physical exams

Students of engineering and arts colleges staging a demonstration against direct exams in Krishnagiri on Monday.

Students of engineering and arts colleges here demanded cancellation of physical exams as announced by the State government.

The government had announced conduct of physical exams for the semester starting January 20. The announcement comes a year and after unconventional teaching and learning methods forced by the pandemic. Until now, since the reopening of college after a long hiatus, evaluation was being done through online testing mode including conduct of exams online. The online testing involved open book tests.

“The online classes were often seen as a farce, since no actual learning and teaching happened,” said a student.

“They taught us through online classes, so now they should also conduct exams online. The sudden announcement that exams will be held physically, while the syllabus was not covered or taught to us is a problem,” says Vignesh, one of the students.

A second year mechanical engineering student Vignesh asked,“without teaching us anything, how can they insist on testing us through physical exams?”

According to him, students had come from as far as Uthangarai and Tirupathur colleges and other arts and science colleges and not just engineering colleges to take part in the protest. Over 300 students took part in the protest.