An air of unease and uncertainty hangs in the colleges of West Bengal though the State has decided to hold exams for final-year undergraduate students between October 1 and 18.
The primary reason for the uncertainty is that the University Grants Commission — which has set September 30 as the deadline — is yet to respond to West Bengal’s request that it be allowed to hold the exams between those dates. Another reason is the mode of exams: they will be entirely conducted online, something unprecedented for the colleges.
The challenge is even greater for the University of Calcutta because quite a few of the 152 colleges affiliated to it are located in far-flung areas, including the Sunderbans. On Wednesday evening, after a meeting of its Vice-Chancellor with the principals of the 152 colleges, it was decided that the colleges, as of now, notify the exams on their websites without giving dates.
It was also decided that the question paper set for the exams to be originally held in April be used for the upcoming exams. The question papers would be uploaded on the college websites, but the students would be required to write the answers on paper and — within 24 hours — send scanned copies to the email IDs of their respective colleges. They will also have the option of physically submitting their answer sheets in their colleges. The evaluation will be done by the colleges, who will then post the mark sheets on the university portal.
At the meeting, it was also suggested that students be given the option of sending screenshots of their answer sheets on WhatsApp; this was objected to by many principals but the idea still remains under consideration. Principals of colleges in remote locations said 24 hours were too few for students to arrange for sending back answer sheets and sought more time.
The university and the colleges will conduct a dry run of the exams from September 28-30. No decision has been taken yet for the conduct of final-year exams for post-graduate students, and the V-C is expected to call another meeting shortly for the purpose.
If the UGC agrees to West Bengal’s request for holding the exams between October 1 and 18, the university staff will have to work through Durga Puja so that they meet the the State’s deadline for declaring the results by October 31.
