Bhubaneswar, Feb. 9: Students and teachers of diploma engineering colleges have expressed displeasure to the state government's decision to conduct the internal exams online.

The technical education department has circulated an order to conduct an online test for the internal exam of diploma engineering students. "The guidelines require the students to answer 20 questions in just 20 minutes," said a teacher.

The students, however, are ruing the fact that they are not acquainted with the new process, and there should have been sufficient mock tests before introducing such initiatives in the middle of an academic session.

"Online tests are conducted in competitive exams, which have objective courses. When it comes to internal exams, the focus is always on theoretical topics and the answers are by and large descriptive. Such online questions will only confuse us. The internal marks are extremely important as they will reflect in our final scores," said Ayush, a fourth-year diploma student.

"Since we are not acquainted with the process, there are chances that we might perform poorly and fail," said Shraddha, another student.

Besides, teachers said conducting such tests online required uninterrupted Internet facilities, which were not available in many engineering colleges located in remote places. In such a situation, the students are bound to suffer.

The students, in a letter to the department, have requested internal exams be held in paper and in the traditional format.

The pass percentage in engineering schools and polytechnics all over the state has dropped to 40 per cent. Results in government institutes have not been satisfactory either, with many of them reporting a pass percent of a mere 30 per cent. The pass percentages of the government polytechnics in Berhampur and Rayagada were 28 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively.

To improve the scores, the department has initiated steps such as conducting monthly review meetings and taking into account the performance of students in class tests. The principals have been asked to make surprise visit to the classrooms, and if required, sit on the last bench to test the teaching methodologies of the professors.

For students, who are hesitant to clear their doubts before the class, the institutes have been directed to develop an e-mail correspondence system between teachers and students.

To strengthen the teaching as well as learning processes, the institutions have been asked to collect feedback from students on a monthly basis.