IIT Bhubaneswar Students Submit Petition Against Online Exam

The final year students of the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar have submitted a petition against the online examination that is due to start on 24 June.

The petition says that the students will be unable to take the online end-semester examination due to financial reasons. The students require a laptop, two smartphones and an Internet connection to take the examination.

“The administration of IIT Bhubaneswar has decided to hold the online examination from 24 June, without considering the problems of the final years,” said the petition.

Earlier, a survey conducted by the students showed that 65% of the students would be unable to take the examination online.

To oppose the online examination, the students also started an online campaign called ‘Save IITBBS on Twitter. IIT Bhubaneswar claimed that “fake accounts” were created by a few students to spread misinformation.

Many students who took a mock test on 9 May to check the viability of the software, found it ‘buggy’ and convoluted, creating problems while taking the examination.

The administration has said that if the students are unable to take the examination online, they can take it the traditional way at the end of July.

Other IITs such as IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee and IIT Kanpur have adopted an ‘S-Satisfactory grading system’ so that the outgoing students can graduate in time.

Considering the concerns raised by the students and the lockdown, the students are demanding an alternative mode of evaluation.

The institute has so far denied all the concerns raised by the students against the online examination. The institute claims that the issues raised by the students were an attempt at “defaming..the institute”. The institute claimed that it is functioning with transparency.

Apparently the institute conducted a survey to confirm the views of the students with Twitter posts. The results of the survey have not been made public so far.

According to the registrar, the decision to conduct the examination online was made unanimously by the Senate. The students VP of Gymkhana is also a part of the Senate.

“We are confident that the students of IIT Bhubaneswar will take this challenge to graduate themselves with full honours and assessment standards,” the institute said.