ITANAGAR, Jul 1: The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and its state branch have sought the promotion of students across universities and colleges of Arunachal due to the Covid-19 lockdown and waiver of one semester’s fee.
Informing that students are facing extreme uncertainties, both financially and mentally, due to the lockdown as they do not know the present status of their classes and examinations, the NSUI, in a letter addressed to the Himalayan University here, said that these are some of the pressing demands of the students.
The union asked the university administration to culminate the present semester in June 2020 and continue with the subsequent semester at the earliest once lockdown measures have been removed.
Also noting that the present experimentation with online classes has not been successful across Arunachal as students belonging to interior rural areas are facing difficulty with connectivity, making online classes and scope of online examinations a luxury available to only a few, the NSUI said that any conduct of physical examination in the
present climate would increase the chances of community infection.
The union requested the authority to consider the option of compulsory promotion of students in 1st and 2nd year to their subsequent semesters and to consider that the final year students should be allowed to graduate based on the performance in previous years with an additional 10 percent marks.
Highlighting that most students are dependent on their families for monetary support or have taken out educational loans to sustain their education, NSUI national secretary Md Kabir Ahamad, who is also the state in-charge of Arunachal, asked the university authorities to wave off the fee under financial packages provided by the Central government.
Requesting the university authority to consider waiving fees for one semester of all the students, Ahamad also argued, “Universities across Arunachal have been on lockdown for past two months and continuing, while most of the present semester, education has not taken on-campus facilities for which such fees are charged.
The union also requested to waive off interest on education loans for at least six months while providing an extra six months to the start of repayment date of such students so that such loans by lending institutions do not turn into non-performing assets.
