Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, December 9

Omicron threat and ongoing strike by the college teachers is likely to disturb the examination schedule of the students once again for this ongoing odd semester in various colleges of the region.

Theory examinations shall be conducted in online mode by following the same mechanism which was followed in the April/May 2021 session of online examination. — Jaspreet Singh, Registrar, IK Gujral Punjab Technical University

While IK Gujral Punjab Technical University on Thursday announced to conduct online theory examination owing to the threat due to new Covid variant, the colleges affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University are still unclear on the possibility of examination slated from December 14 onwards owing to the ongoing strike by the faculty in demand for implementation of the 7th Pay Commission of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

IKGPTU release to the media says: “Thousands of students from different states of the country are studying in more than 250 colleges of the university. Due to new variant of Covid, students from outside states are constantly demanding online exams. A high-level committee of college representatives was constituted by the university, after which the decision to make all the theory papers online was approved and released to the colleges /institutions / students on Thursday.”

University Registrar Jaspreet Singh said: “The practical exams can be conducted in both offline/online mode. For practical examination, the head of the institution/college will decide at own level. Theory examinations shall be conducted in online mode by following the same mechanism which was followed in the April/May 2021 session of online examination.”

He said the examinations will start from the first week of January 2022. “The examination form shall be filled online via login IDs of every student from December 11 (except 2021 batch) and the proposed datesheet shall be available after December 16. The students will be able to fill up the online form with their login ID,” he further clarified.

The situation remains different in GNDU-affiliated colleges, which are currently affected due to teachers sitting on mass protest. HMV College Principal Dr Ajay Sareen said: “The practical examination are slated to start from December 14, but we are not sure if the protesting staff will cooperate or not. The principals’ association had proposed to the university that the datesheet be put off by 15 days, but so far it stands as it is. The theory exams were expected to start from December 20 or so but so far there is no datesheet. The teachers are saying that they cannot take exams in winter break and that these should be put off afterwards. But so far, there is no clarity”.

Another issue affecting the GNDU colleges is about the SC/ST students. While the Principal Secretary (Higher Education) had directed the colleges not to take fee from the students who hold freeship cards, GNDU has kept the admission of all such students pending asking the colleges to furnish the university fee. The college principals have now written to the Principal Secretary asking him which order they should follow and whether they could take the university fee from the SC students. “In case the university keeps admissions of Dalit students pending, they will not get roll numbers for the forthcoming examination for the first, third and fifth semesters,” said a principal.