Dozens of students of Jamia Millia Islamia on Friday protested outside the vice-chancellor’s office on Friday, demanding scrapping of the online proctored examinations set to begin from December 21. A delegation of students met with university officials, including chief proctor and demanded that assignment-based examination should be held for the upcoming semester.
A proctored exam is one that is supervised by an approved, neutral person (a proctor) who ensures the identity of the test taker and the integrity of the test taking environment. In this case, the proctor will use the student’s webcam and microphone to monitor them.
On Friday, students also proposed online open book examinations as an alternative. However, university officials said that too would be conducted in the proctored manner.
According to minutes of meetings released by students, university officials have agreed to consider doing “some part of external marking” using Google form-based examination which doesn’t require high-speed internet and conduct viva-voce over phone calls. The university also announced that a mock test of the proctored exams would be conducted on December 15 to “test the feasibility of online proctored examination in the university”.
Friday’s protests come a day after the university notified the guidelines for the proctored exams, stating that students taking the exam can only do so on laptops or personal computers along with ensuring “uninterrupted power and good internet connectivity”.
The announcement sparked outrage among the students who said that those from remote areas in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir where many students are still relying on 2G internet to continue their online classes.
On Friday, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, also tweeted, “Spoke to Jaffrey sahab, Controller examinations at Jamia about problems faced by students from J&K who have to take exams through proctored online mode. He assured to make necessary changes & suggested that students unable to take these exams email.”
Controller of Examinations Nazim Hussain Jafri, however, denied talking anything about “necessary changes”. He said that the university had forwarded the grievances of the students to the University Grants Commission. “Students submitted their concerns on Friday as well. We are taking it all into account and are waiting for the UGC to respond to the student demands forwarded to the commission,” he said.