An association of college and university teachers has written to the affiliating universities that have decided to hold online examinations at the undergraduate level in June to reverse the decision and conduct the exams offline.
The West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA), cited the example of Calcutta University in their letters addressed separately to the vice-chancellors of universities including West Bengal State University, Barasat; Vidyasagar University, Medinipur; and Kalyani University.
CU had last week decided to hold undergraduate exams offline, refusing to give in to the pressure from a section of students demanding online exams.
“Calcutta University had at its syndicate meeting on June 3 decided to hold the upcoming undergraduate examinations offline. We welcome the decision. Jadavpur University and Rabindra Bharati University have already held offline exams. If some universities hold offline exams and some conduct online tests, we fear that could lead to a huge disparity in marks among students,” reads the letter.
“We appeal to you (the vice-chancellor) to conduct the exams offline to ensure a better future for the students,” the letter says.
Keshab Bhattacharya, general secretary of the association, said they feared that those who would write the exams offline, under the watch of invigilators, would end up scoring less marks than those who would write the papers online.
“The colleges lack resources to hold proctored examinations. Our experience during the pandemic-induced shutdown of campuses over the past two years shows the students hardly subject themselves to self-invigilation,” said Bhattacharya.
Proctored examinations are timed exams during which the faculty monitors the examinees’ computers and webcam video and audio.
Through the monitoring the institute wants to ensure that the students do not consult books or online articles or take help from others while writing the answers.
A teacher at a college affiliated to CU had said in May that students had been demanding online exams because they knew the mechanism would ensure mass copying of answers.
“They have become so used to resorting to unfair practice that they don’t want to write offline exams. But since Calcutta University has been able to resist the pressure, the other universities must follow suit,” he said.
The college and university teachers’ association had on May 19 written to education minister Bratya Basu demanding offline exams because online tests, conducted in the absence of invigilators, lacked transparency.
In the letter, the teachers’ association accused Trinamul Chhatra Parishad of pressuring universities to hold the end-semester exams online.
Vidyasagar University, which resumed offline classes on May 5, reversed its decision to hold in-person exams following pressure from the students’ union, the association alleged.
When asked if the appeal from the teachers would prompt them to reverse their decision yet again, VC Shibaji Pratim Basu said: “We have started the process of holding undergraduate exams in theory papers online. We don’t have any plan to change the decision.”
Mahua Das, VC of West Bengal State University, and Manas Kumar Sanyal, VC of Kalyani University, echoed Basu’s comment.
