Anna University has announced that the end-semester exams for undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students would be held in the offline (physical) mode. The University has scheduled the exams for the third week of December.
College managements and teachers are, however, wary. Principals say the students are unprepared to face a physical exam. Students have been struggling to write long form answers with pen and paper, they say.
“Students were used to the 90-minute multiple choice question exams and even though the students in the third semester were given an open book exam, it was more like they were copying the answers. Engineering subjects necessitate a lot of drawing and now students have to write full answers, with sketches and figures. Initially, they struggled a lot,” said A. Ramesh, Principal of Chennai Institute of Technology.
But the institution has ensured that students take up physical exams. They have since been trained for offline exams, he said.
Colleges in the border districts are especially concerned. The State Government has not permitted inter-State bus movement owing to the pandemic. As a result, students from the neighbouring States will have difficulty in travelling to Tamil Nadu, they say.
“It may not be suitable to revert to offline mode in the odd semester. Students struggle to cope with mathematics. Also, the University has not specified the pattern — would it be multiple choice questions or open book or conventional exams. Would it be proctored? The controller of examination and the registrar should clarify our doubts,” says the principal of a college in Coimbatore.
Admissions hit
The indecisiveness is hurting admissions as well, self-financing college officials say. “Admissions have been good this year but the University has said we can choose between online and offline classes. We have started induction programme and if we choose online classes for students then how do we prepare them for offline exams? First year students will have to prepare for six exams in just three months,” says a college official from the western region.
Management officials say such confusion can lead to candidates rethinking the decision to take up engineering programmes. The last date for admission is November 30 and, in some colleges, only 60% of students have been admitted so far, they add.
“We request the university authorities to give clear instructions. The floods have also affected students as after Deepavali colleges have not functioned. We don’t know how December will be. If they decide on the offline mode for the forthcoming semester, it would help us to prepare the students in advance,” a principal of a self-financing college said.
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