VELLORE: Owing to the Covid pandemic, customers rarely visit this snacks shop at Viruthampattu in Vellore city. A boy who works there as a part-time employee arranges the table meant for serving tea and snacks. The owner lends his laptop and the boy downloads the question paper and starts writing the answers.
Meet Naresh, a final year postgraduate student who was writing his first examination in the pandemic period.
Naresh, studying economics at an aided college in Vellore city, was frantic when he could not download the question paper using his mobile phone. “I was trying hard for some time to download the question paper but the server was too slow,” he said.
When he was anxiously tapping the keys of the phone without luck, his employer helped him with his laptop. “My employer gave his laptop. I arranged a table and chair to sit comfortably to write the exam,” he noted.
His ordeal did not end there as he had to rush to the college on a motorcycle since answer scripts should have to be handed within an hour of completion of exam hours, as per the instructions of Thiruvalluvar University.
Students who lived in far off places either reached cities/towns a day in advance or rushed early in the morning so that they could get better access to internet connectivity to download the question papers.
“Our friends from Jawadhu Hills had come a day before the examination and stayed in Tiruvannamalai town so that they can have better internet access and submit the answer scripts within the stipulated time,” a student of Govt Arts College in Tiruvannamalai said.
The online examinations for the final semester of final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses got underway on Wednesday in the colleges affiliated to Thiruvalluvar University.
“Had the university authorities allowed the students to upload the answer scripts through an online link, the hassles to hand over the answer scripts within one hour from the completion of the exam could have been avoided,” observed a college administrator.