IIT Kharagpur has reversed its decision to hold the end-semester exams only in the physical mode following protests from a section of students.
After an open-house session between the IIT Kharagpur director and the students on Monday night, it was decided that students would be given the option to write the exam either offline or online.
The open house was organised by director V.K. Tewari at Tagore Open Air Theatre after 8,000-odd students assembled at the institute’s main building demanding a change in the decision to hold the exams offline from April 7 to 14.
Registrar Tamal Nath said: “Students have been given the option after they cited constraints about writing the exam in only the offline mode.”
On March 8, the institute had asked all students to come to the campus by March 31 so they could write the end-semester exams offline.
The students had attended classes online in the ongoing spring semester as a precaution against Covid.
A section of students then wrote to the director, saying it would be financially difficult for them to come to the campus for a fortnight, go home after the exams and return to campus again for the new semester.
When their demand wasn’t met, the students demonstrated on Monday.
At the open house, the director proposed that students who were already on campus could write the exams offline and the others would be called later to write the papers.
“But the students did not agree to this. They said final-year students would not be able to graduate until their exams were held, which would lead to delays in joining their places of work or pursuing higher studies,” an IIT official said.
Repeated calls to director Tewari went unanswered.
An IIT teacher said exams should have been held offline for fair evaluation but in a staggered way, like what NIT Durgapur has done.
NIT Durgapur has said exams for fourth-year students who are attending their industrial internships will be online, while those in second- and third-year will write the papers offline in April.
