DU mulls online exams in July

The Dhaka University authority at an emergency meeting of the Deans Committee on Wednesday recommended taking final examinations online.
The decision came following voicing of the students' fear of facing session jam should the closure of the institution continue beyond the one year period due to Corona pandemic. All educational institutions in the country were closed on March 17 in 2020.  
In the meeting, the authority decided to take examinations online in July if the situation is not favourable for reopening of the educational institutions by then.
Engineering and Technology Faculty Dean Prof Dr Md Hasanuzzuman told the Daily Observer that the Deans committee recommended taking the examinations online.
Prof Hasanuzzaman said, "An emergency meeting of the Deans' Committee has decided to take the test online due to the fear of session jam due to Corona. If the situation is not conducive for taking the test in person by the month of July, the test will be taken online. In that case, the three-hour test will be taken in one hour or one and a half hours."In this regard, a mixed reaction came from the students.
Specially, Honours final-year and Masters students are in favour of online or the conventional examination, because, they are worried about the year loss and missing out on job tests.
On the other hand, the first, second and third-year students are not in favour of online exams and resented the decision. They are putting forward
various arguments as the reason.
They think it will discriminate among the students as a number of students could not attend online classes for the lack of smart devices, poor network connection and lack of data package.
Mantaha Aziz, an Honours final-year student said, "We respect the decision of the university authorities. If we in the final year take the examination, we will be able to move towards getting a job and realize our family dream."
Tasnim Hasan Abir, a final-year student of Persian Language and Literature Department, said, "Since the beginning of Corona, the university has been closed and no exams have been taken. As a result, the students are already in the same session. The way Corona is growing recently also raises questions about when the university will reopen. In this case, taking the test online is very important and positive."
Some students are also opposing the proposed online exams. They claim that many students will not be able to participate in the online exams due to their location in the villages. The result can be erroneous and many may fail in the examination.
Rakib Uddin, a second-year student of the English Department, said, "One-fourth of the students did not take regular online classes due to poor network coverage and other difficulties. Online exam is nothing but a luxury in the name of an exam. If the written test cannot be taken, then it should be done through assignments."
While talking to a number of class representative of several departments, this correspondent learnt that many of the students do not want online examinations for they need at least two to three months to prepare themselves after reopening of the educational institutions to sit for the written examinations.
The university authority has taken several mid-term examinations online by giving assignments in many departments. But, the final semester exam or year ending exams are yet to be held.
In many departments, mid-term examinations of two semesters have already been taken. So, students raised question how the authority will take two semesters' final examinations at a time.
If the authority keeps time in between the span of two examinations after opening halls, students will lose one year, said a student of Sociology Department.
Already, the decision to reopen educational institutions has been thwarted several times. Last, the Dhaka University authority explicitly said it is not possible to reopen the dormitories at this time of corona pandemic.
Earlier, the authority decided to resume classes on May 24 after a decision from the Education Ministry. Ahead of starting classes, student dormitories were supposed to be reopened on May 17.
But, the DU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman on Thursday told this correspondent that it is not possible to reopen the halls on scheduled time due to the second wave of Corona pandemic. "It is not possible to reopen the halls before arranging and making sure of the students vaccination programme. So, the delay," the VC said.
Besides, around five hundred students of Dhaka University have been studying at the premises of Science Faculty Library in the university campus since August of last year.
Almost all of them are taking preparation for the competitive examinations.