Univs told to hold all exams in offline mode

Univs told to hold all exams in offline mode

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

17.11.2021

Citing the decline in Covid-19 cases in the state, the Tamil Nadu higher education department on Tuesday directed all state universities to conduct all exams only in offline mode.

A section of students in Madurai and engineering college managements asked the department to continue with unsupervised online exams for upcoming exams.

"The offline examinations may be held by following the standard operating procedures and guidelines issued by the government. It applies to all polytechnic, arts and science, engineering, colleges of education and university departments," higher education secretary D Karthikeyan said in a circular to all universities.

Professors from Anna University said the quality of graduates will improve only if exams are held offline. The university also decided to postpone the semester exams by two weeks to give time for colleges to prepare students for offline mode exams.

"The exams were originally scheduled to start from December 13. Now, the university decided to start the semester exams for students studying in third, fifth and seventh semesters from December 27," an official from Anna University said.

Madras University is also planning to conduct physical mode exams from the last week of December.

Anna University former vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy, said the state government's decision to conduct physical mode exams is a welcome move.

"The state government should not yield to the pressure from students and college management. In the interest of quality of education, the government should stick to their decision as the unsupervised online exams led to copying and other malpractices," he said.