An Open Letter to the BPUT and the Government of Odisha addressing concerns regarding conduct of final semester examinations

Date: 8th June, 2020

Dear Authorities,

Warm greetings of the day!

With due respect, I am writing this letter to you to express my deepest concerns towards the recent decision taken by the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) with respect to Letter No. BPUT/Exam/1935/2020 dated 06.06.2020 to conduct the semester theory written examinations for final year students during the last week of June / 1st week of July 2020. I am sure many of my fellow batchmates would share the same concerns as me and would like to address the same to you.

During the 3rd week of March, as the country grappled with the initial outbreak of COVID-19, the central and state governments took drastic steps such as closing down institutions, postponing examinations, eventually leading to a countrywide lockdown. Many students were impacted through this decision as it led to the delaying of their examinations, leading to delay of the publication of results and issuance of provisional degree certificate and gradesheets. This bears a huge impact on the student community as many students have plans to pursue their higher studies or industry jobs after graduation. However, it was high time that the government take extreme steps to contain the outbreak and the student community welcomed the decision.

Today, the scenario is much worse. There are more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases observed every day in the country with more than 7,000 cumulative deaths. In Odisha, many COVID-19 cases are being observed from each and every district on a daily basis and there are no signs of the outbreak being contained. On the contrary, owing to the lockdown restrictions being eased, the number of cases is rising with every passing day and it is completely uncertain when the peak will hit and when the cases will start slowing down.

During such times of crisis, the Government and the University asking students to appear for their final semester examinations is merely illogical. Such a decision exposes the students to potential health and life hazards. The student community is extremely grieved and disappointed with such a unilateral decision. More so because the Government and the University did not have any consultation with the students and their parents in the decision making process. I do not know the protocol, consequently, I will abstain from commenting more on it, but I would like to state that without a fair consultation process with the students and parents, the Government and the University made themselves oblivious towards the following concerns and grievances:

• There is no guarantee that the exam conducting body or the people involved in it will ensure safe and hygiene practices while conducting the examinations across all districts and across all examination centres. Controlling the crowd and keeping most of the students disciplined is a major challenge. Even a single mistake may prove to be hazardous and in no time the situation may escalate seriously. If any single student contracts with COVID-19 in the due process, will the Government and the University take responsibility? The students, if infected, also pose a great risk to their elderly family members and infants in their household.
• Many students had travelled to their hometowns in various states of the country such as Delhi, Assam, Karnataka, etc. as soon as they were asked to vacate their hostels. The situation in such states is beyond piteous. The inter-state transportation modes are also limited and many students can’t afford airfares. How will those students travel to Odisha in such a situation? Even if somehow few of them are able to come back to Odisha, they pose a great risk in spreading the infection in the examination centres. How will management solve this problem? Where will such students stay? If your answer is that the students will be sanctioned hostel accommodation, who will ascertain safe practices and hygiene in the hostels? The congestion, the shared bathrooms, the common mess, who will ensure each and everything is managed impeccably without any mistake? What are the plans for quarantining such students?
• When the students were asked to vacate their hostels, they left for their homes without carrying their books, notes and other study material. None of us anticipated that such a situation will arise. In many colleges, the syllabus is far from over. The University has withal not shared any study material through the online medium for such students to study in the lockdown period. Students do not have access to any library facilities. Moreover, many students stay in rural areas and do not have access to proper internet connection and computer facilities. How will such students study and prepare for the examinations? You obviously do not expect the students to recollect the entire course content that they had studied during the pre-lockdown period and you also do not expect the students to appear for their examinations unprepared.
• Many students have underlying health conditions such as Asthma, Pneumonia, etc. that might become profoundly hazardous and probably fatal (God forbid so) if infected by COVID-19. Do the exams matter more than their lives?

Many of the top IITs, NITs, IIITs and other public universities such as PEC Chandigarh, etc. have cancelled the final semester examinations and have decided to grade the students basis their internal assessments and previous academic performance. Such a decision has ensured that (i) Students remain safe in their hometowns, (ii) Students are awarded their degree at the earliest. Verbalizing from a B.Tech student’s perspective, we have already appeared for the theory exams of 37 different subjects in our four-year academic career along with various laboratory tests, viva-voce, quizzes, assignments, seminars, projects, etc. The final semester consists of only two subjects (one out of which is a humanities subject). Canceling these two theory papers will not bring any degradation to the quality of education imparted to the students overall. This is also not any board examination, therefore the career of the students should not depend on only these two subjects.

The High Level Committee constituted vide the SD&TE Department’s order number 1942 dated 13.05.2020 additionally recommended that students be allowed to choose the “Normalization Method” which is supposed to allot “50% weightage to marks of all cleared papers of all past semesters and 50% weightage to marks secured in the internal assessments of the final semester subjects conducted by the respective colleges” to obtain their final grade in the two theory subjects of the final semester. The student community duly supports this student-friendly recommendation and is disappointed to see the Government and the University not considering such an option for the welfare of the students. The students deserve such an option in these unprecedented times.

With all of these disadvantages and concerns, it is facile to understand how the desideratum of the hour is not to ask for a centralised examination when there are several other more immensely colossal tests that life, in its most laconic sense, has put forth in front of us — especially to the graduating students. This group of people, still in their early 20s, had anticipated graduation ceremonies, farewells, convocations, jobs, further studies or preparation for competitive exams. Now, all that has been relegated to struggling against anxieties about that very future which seemed so certain and well-placed a few months ago.

I am not a student who is shying away from academia or examinations, but the times are tough, the situation is unprecedented, the cases are rising, and it is high time that the Government and the University abrogate the planned examinations and explore other solutions to settle the career of final year students without imperilling their health and possibly their lives.

We request the Government and the University to cancel the final semester examinations of all students and award them grades based on the Normalization Process and issue their provisional degree certificates and grade sheets at the earliest, latest by July 15th, 2020.

I sincerely hope that the Government and the University pays serious attention to the concerns of the students and make amicable decisions which are in the larger interests of the student community and their upcoming future.

Kind Regards,

Class of 2020, CET Bhubaneswar