Considering the second wave of COVID-19 and the resultant lockdown that had affected academic activities in the State, the Ballari district unit of All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) has demanded that the Vijayanagar Sri Krishnadevaraya University (VSKU) postpone its undergraduate and postgraduate examinations scheduled to begin on Monday.
Office-bearers of the organisation met the university authorities on Thursday and expressed their opposition to what they called “rigidity and hurriedness of the university in conducting the examinations without giving enough time to students for preparations”.
“All the universities in the State have scheduled the examinations for the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees for August and the VSKU is displaying its rigidity and hurridness in conducting the examinations from July 26. Students could not attend classes during the lockdown and many of them even lost their close relatives and parents to the pandemic. Those who worked as agricultural labour and construction workers for the last two-three months owing to the closure of educational institutions have just now resumed their studies after the academic activities began. They cannot go and write the examinations right away. The VSKU should conduct revision classes for them and then conduct the examinations,” said district president of the organisation Guralli Raja.
Stating that vaccination for students has not been completed yet, he said that the authorities should first vaccinate all students before conducting examinations.
“Only 65% of the students have got their vaccination for COVID-19. It is not right on the part of the university to conduct examinations before all of its students are vaccinated. Moreover, transportation services have not completely resumed in rural areas and students from rural areas would find it difficult to come to the examination centres. The government has not yet reopened hostels and students from faraway places may find it difficult to stay in cities and towns while attending the examinations,” district secretary of the organisation J. Soumya said.
The students representatives then submitted a memorandum demanding that the examinations be postponed while listing out the reasons for their demand.
