KU students protest semester exams

Express dissatisfaction over quality of online teaching, demand promotion on basis of assignments

Scores of students from the University of Karachi (KU) protested on Tuesday the administration's decision to conduct semester examinations from September 21, demanding they be promoted on the basis of assignments submitted during online classes.

The first day of the commencement of on-campus classes, after a gap of six months, was marked by KU students gathering outside the university's administration block and expressing dissatisfaction over the quality of online teaching.

Teachers hardly taught anything in online sessions and rather, only asked students to submit assignments, they complained. On what basis then the administration will conduct examinations, they questioned.

"Why are they [the administration] holding examinations when teachers did not teach anything during online classes?" asked Sherwani, a student of the commerce department.

Students demanded that they be promoted to the next semester on the basis of assignments they submitted during online classes.

The protest was attended by students of political science, commerce, English, sociology, chemistry, physics and other departments.

Soon after the protest, campus security officer Dr Moeez Khan and student adviser Dr Salman Zubair addressed students and negotiations were under at the time of filing of this report.

The university had provided technical training to its students after Eidul Fitr, during the lockdown, after which it began online classes. However, students were not satisfied with the quality of education during online sessions.

Earlier, on August 12, the varsity had issued a notification to conduct semester examinations online via Skype, Google Classrooms, Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp.

The notification mentioned four different modes of examinations, including 'during session assessments.' These were to be based on term papers, case study projects, thematic essays, individual or group presentations, class tests or activities, quizzes, e-portfolio, open-book assignments and individual or group viva voce.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2020.