After almost a year-long protest against the administration at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal, students finally heaved a sigh of relief on June 8 as the institute cancelled the online examinations for second, fourth and sixth-semester students.
As per the notice, the students will now be marked on the basis of the ‘prorating of the Internal Assessment (IA) marks and the performance of the students in the available previous semester — on similar lines as followed in the previous academic year.
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“I’m very relieved that the college decided to cancel our exams. I will have proper time to study for my placement and focus on my internship,” said a student who is currently in his sixth semester.
Since August 2020, the administration had been asking students to submit regular assignments and attend online classes even on Sundays. They were asked to write online exams under rigid guidelines, extremely harsh proctoring and inadequate preparatory leaves. One was scheduled to be held by the end of this month. More so, they were granted no relaxation in terms of evaluation, and were, in fact, negatively marked for wrong answers.
Also read: MIT Manipal: A Tale of Never-Ending Exams, Assignments And Administrative Silence
Despite a rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in March 2021 and the campus hostel area being declared as the containment zone, as per a report by The News Minute, the students said that they were forced to stay at the hostels and attend online classes.
Students had also been complaining about the deteriorating quality of education they were receiving online, and how the administration was not ready to give them any concession in terms of reducing the syllabus.
As a result, students took to Twitter to protest against the ruthless schedules and harsh testing modes, under the hashtags #enoughManipal #cancelMITexams. They demanded either an immediate cancellation of the end-semester exams or to make them optional with a reduced syllabus.
Following the protest and a hailstorm of concerns raised by students as well as parents, the institute uploaded a notice on its website on June 5, 2021, confirming that the online exams would be held, however, with revised guidelines – a decision that, as per the students, only added to their burden instead of reducing it.
As the protest intensified, the administration has finally cancelled the examination.
Featured image credit: Manipal Institute of Technology Website