NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay has decided to scrap exams for all its students this year with the national lockdown getting extended for a third time while IITs such as Roorkee, Kharagpur and Gandhinagar are considering online examinations if travel restrictions continue.
IIT Bombay, for the first time, will evaluate its student based on their past performances, said a professor who attended an internal meeting of the institute last week where this decision was made.
The premier technology institute ruled out the option of holding exams online examination due to poor Internet connectivity at many places, the professor told ET.
IIT Ropar has decided to hold online exams for all its final year students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, while Kharagpur, Roorkee and Kanpur IITs are also preparing themselves for online examination in case restrictions on travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic get extended further, officials said.
The exams for all students across IITs were pushed by two weeks to late June or early July when the first lockdown was announced in March.
IITs Delhi, Kharagpur, Madras and Gandhinagar are keen to hold the exams in their campuses, but will review the decision basis new developments, officials said.
“It would be unfair to evaluate based on online examination as there is fraction of students – say 20% – who do not have access to Internet,” said Shantanu Roy, dean-academics at IIT Delhi.
The institute is for now looking at holding exams by July end. Before shutting its campuses on March 12, it had conducted one minor exam. “There are still a minor and major exam left,” Roy said..
IIT Madras is yet to decide on when and how to conduct exams, its 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,” he told ET.
Pratik Mutha, dean-academics at IIT Gandhinagar, said online exams are not altogether ruled out.
Sarit K Das, director of IIT Ropar, said the institute is looking at various options, including the ‘take home exams’ option that many international universities have adopted. In this method, students may get 48 hours or so to solve a given problem which will have multiple solutions. “This could be a design problem which only the student can solve without taking any help,” Das told ET.
In the case of students who are not in the final year, IIT Ropar will take a decision on holding online exams only later, he said.
Concerns for the institutes are many. Right from the examination and curriculum schedules (most of which is going online) to addressing social distancing norms at the campuses, IITs have plenty on their plate.
