Here's how IITs are planning to hold exams amid COVID-19 lockdown

While talented minds from the chain of India’s prominent technology institutes i.e. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are working day and night to contribute in India’s fight against the novel coronavirus, there is constant stress related to deferred examinations that is plaguing students’ minds.

While talented minds from the chain of India’s prominent technology institutes i.e. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are working day and night to contribute in India’s fight against the novel coronavirus, there is constant stress related to deferred examinations that is plaguing students’ minds. The outbreak of the pandemic novel coronavirus and the imposed nationwide lockdown in order to control the virus spread disrupted various educational activities such as semester and term examinations, classroom lectures, laboratory sessions, admission process, beginning of the new academic session and more.

Many reports suggest that premiere institutes like IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Gandhinagar are mulling to conduct examinations online amid the travel restrictions during COVID-19 lockdown. While others are yet to decide the mode of conduction of the examination.

According to the new academic calendar released by IIT Ropar, the institute will be holding final examinations from June 1 to June 7. However, the institute is yet to decide the schedule.

IIT Ropar may have decided its way to conduct examinations online, there are officials who state that IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and IIT Gandhinagar are keen to hold the exams in their campuses, but will review the decision basis new developments.

While attending a Webinar ‘Mission Admission’ conducted by TOI, IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao talked about the delayed academic session and pending examinations stating that the institute already lost about six weeks of teaching. The theory is still manageable but challenges are being faced with laboratory work, research work, conducting exams and more. There are options like take-home exams with cameras but then what about the research? Many of the students need access to labs for the research and they are at a complete loss.

Mr Rao also stated that the institute started off by conducting online classes for two weeks but received a lot of complaints from the students due to lack of bandwidth. Later, the institute declared vacations from April 20 to June 25 and now they have decided to re-open in July.

Also Read: Webinar on education 2020-21: Here's how top academicians plan to provide learning in post-covid era

Talking about the academic calendar, Mr Rao said that the new batch will join in August onwards. In the month of July and August, the current semester will end and the next semester will start September onwards. That’s the plan right now but let’s see what happens.

Whereas, while talking to the media about the pending exams, IIT Madras Director, Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, “Some are currently doing internships, so their exams will be held only in July. For the rest, we will decide in due course”.

The constant extension of the nationwide lockdown and further delays in the re-opening of the academic institutions is making students contemplate over several options that their institutes may opt to conduct the pending examinations. The same speculation and contemplations are leading to fake reports, misconceptions and more. Something similar happened recently when a reputed media source reported about IIT Bombay scrapping all the exams. The report might have received a mixed response from the students but the news got slammed by the IIT Director himself.

Declaring the report as fake on his official Facebook handle, the IIT Bombay Director, Subhasis Chaudhuri stated, “Someone forwarded this FAKE news to me this afternoon. Let me state that IIT Bombay is yet to take any decision on the closure of the current semester. I am surprised to see such fake items making it to headlines in one of the major newspapers in India!!! Wish the reporter had checked with the PRO of the Institute. During the time of such a pandemic, such a news item adds to the agony and anxiety of our students who are away from the campus. Pl stop such fake news.”

He further added, “Our Senate will take a decision on this soon and it will be reported in the IITB website and all students will be informed.”

The IIT Kanpur, Abhay Karandikar, in support of Mr Chaudhuri’s statement bashed the media for spreading misinformation. He further added, “Even the things attributed to IIT Kanpur in the article are incorrect. We will be sharing the decision of our Senate with the students on email and put up on the website”.

Amid all the chaos and uncertainties, it is highly risky to guess the next move of these premier institutes. As Mr Karandikar suggested that “the final decision will be personally shared with the students through email and will be published online,” the students are advised to have patience.

In the midst of these difficult times, the institutes are working towards the best of their students’ future. The higher authorities advise students not to fall prey to fake news and monitor the official websites of their institutes for all the firsthand information.

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