The higher education department has advised the state universities to hold the examination of the odd semester (I, III and V) online even as the colleges and universities are holding offline classes from mid-November.
“As maximum classes of the current semester were taken in online mode, it is advised…. to hold the current semester examination in online mode...”, the advisory says.
Classes were held online as a precaution against Covid after the semester started in September. In-person classes started in mid-November.
Calcutta University vice-chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee announced on Wednesday that they would hold the exams at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels online in January and February because a new variant of the coronavirus had emerged.
The principal of a college wondered that since students of Class X and XII in schools affiliated to the Bengal board and the CBSE could write the exams on campus, why an exception was made for college and university students.
“The offline exams held under invigilation ensure transparency. Close to 100 per cent candidates passed the BA, BSc and BCom final-semester exams of CU this September. This was possible because students wrote the online exam from home without any invigilation,” he said.
Teachers of the engineering faculty of Jadavpur University had written to vice-chancellor Suranjan Das in June, complaining that students had copied answers during an even semester exam that they had written online.
