BENGALURU: Students of Manipal Institute of Technology have been demanding the cancellation of ongoing examinations and quizzes, due to the loss of life of family members and the mental distraught caused thereby.
They felt it insensitive and inhumane for the institute to administer negative marks to students for their wrong answers, a lecturer reminding a student to attend online class despite the latter having a doctor's appointment and the institute pressing on timely submission discounting for network issues faced by students.
An Engineering Student at the institute told TNIE "While the national sentiment is towards cancellation and relaxation of examination around India at all levels. Yet, Manipal is moving towards examination in a proctored online setup wherein students must stay online without any disruptions in a meeting for about 3 hours without accounting for power issues, network issues, student mental and physical well-being. Several universities have taken student-friendly decisions, and even other colleges under Manipal have understood that it is unrealistic to expect no technical glitches."
Dr Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MA HE), on Friday told TNIE that cancelling the examination may not be an option, however, the matter on the discontent about the proctored examination is being discussed internally so we can rectify it and an update on the same can be expected in two days. Besides, cancellation of exams will have to be worked out with registered bodies, the UGC and have to look into all the angles.
Delaying the exams will be counterproductive for final year students who are planning to continue academics abroad, as there is already a three-month delay in the academic calendar this year. The delay will only cause them to lose one academic session.
Whereas for attendance, while 75 percent attendance of mandatory, and shortage of it causes students to be detained and disallowed from writing exams, this semester being an exceptional case, an exception was made for the rule.
MITans (students of MIT), compiled a list of woes they faced on a state-run page on Twitter, where students complained of insensitivity of the institute on a campaign #enoughManipal #cancelMITexams.
"I cried. I literally cried. The amount of mental harassment @MIT_MANIPAL has made me go through, I cried. Should I take care of my sick mother or give your never-ending exams, quizzes, assignments?" A life of one of the many such students at MIT. #enoughManipal #cancelMITexams, tweeted the forum.
"Faculties can face technical glitches, but students can't? This is the height of hypocrisy here at @MIT_MANIPAL, where it's completely normal for a faculty to face network issues but if the same is faced by students, it's malpractice," said the handle in a series of posts.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education told TNIE that officials are internally figuring it out and are taking a call, and there has been no change in this stand since it was reported recently.
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