ITANAGAR, 9 Dec: Responding to the recent demands of the polytechnic students seeking conduct of online examinations, the directorate of higher & technical education (DH&TE) has on Thursday, issued a clarification stating that it ‘discourages the conduct of online examination from the place of convenience of the students and plans to conduct it in respective institution in a proper examination environment.’
In a statement, the H&TE director Alik Jongkey informed that following submission of individual representations by representatives of various polytechnics of the state to the DH&TE on 3 December requesting for conduct of online end semester examination, the issues were discussed elaborately by the officers of the directorate led by the director (HTE) with the representatives of the polytechnics.
“Subsequent to the discussion with the students an emergency meeting of the academic and the examination committees of the Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Technical Education was conducted on 6 December. The committee recommended for extension of teaching days up to 31 December, 2021 from 14 December, 2021 so as to facilitate proper coverage of the syllabus, reduction of syllabus by 20% for conduct of examination, conduct of the end semester examination of July-December 2021 in blended mode (Both online & offline). However, the students hovered in the directorate from the morning of 6 Dec. 2021 demanding immediate decision.”
“The decisions of the academic and the examination committees were conveyed to the representatives who were insisting on conducting online exams only from their places of convenience. The students of Polytechnics at Dirang, Laying, Pasighat, Roing, Namsai and TPC, Basar went on boycott from 7 to 10 December without any official communication. It is reported that students of some of the polytechnics even boycotted classes in the last part of November without any intimation to the institution authorities,” the director stated.
He further stated that the online classes began from 6 September while offline classes began from 1 November and the students were given an option of extending the academics for 1-2 months to cover the syllabus.
“However, the students were unwilling to accept the offer and are demanding for online examination from the original scheduled date of exam i.e. 14 December. Everyone is aware of the status of network connectivity in the various places of the state. Past experience shows that conducting examinations in online mode is very inconvenient for the students as well as the teachers and is not conducive for a good academic environment. The good and the ill effects of online teaching and learning and examination are known to all. Therefore, conduct of online examination when the classes are being conducted in the offline mode and the students are in their respective institutions cannot be thought of, especially for technical education,” added the H&TE director.
