Online exams: PU to appoint nodal officer for Ladakh students

Panjab University has decided to appoint a special nodal officer for the students of Ladakh. The development came after the higher education department of Ladakh wrote to the varsity.

The decision was taken on Saturday by a committee during an online meeting. The nodal officer will facilitate the smooth conduct of online exams. Online exams for final semester students of Panjab University’s (PU’s) undergraduate and postgraduate courses are scheduled to start from September 17.

Ladakh Students’ Association (LSA) Chandigarh had also expressed the apprehensions that candidates might face technical problems during the online exams and demanded from PU to set up a nodal centre for the students of Ladakh.

A committee member who attended the meeting said, “We have decided to appoint a nodal officer for the students of Ladakh who will facilitate them during exams if they face any problem.”

However, the member said that varsity will not be able to set up a nodal centre there.

The higher education department of the UT of Ladakh had earlier in a letter to PU said that LSA has approached them and the students stated that due to the lack of proper internet services and online examination facilities in Ladakh, they were concerned about technical difficulties they might face while taking the online exams and uploading their answer sheets.

A student of PU’s defence studies department, Deskyong Namgyal, who hails from Ladakh, said, “Internet issues in Ladakh are common and it is obvious that many students may face this problem during exams as well. We have requested the PU to set up a nodal centre for us which can facilitate the smooth conduct of online exams.”

According to the guidelines issued by the varsity, students have to upload the answer sheets which will not exceed 12 pages each within two hours after the time of exam is over. They may also send it by post to the varsity. About 40 nodal centres will be set up for the conduct of online examination by PU, four of which will be in Chandigarh.

PU’s controller of examinations Parvinder Singh said that new email addresses — ugexam@gmail.com and pgexam@gmail.com — have been activated for around 20,000 private/USOL candidates to submit their answer sheets in the university secrecy branch.