LAHORE: A large number of students from public and private universities on Monday protested against their institutes for holding on-campus examinations.

Hundreds of students gathered outside Aiwan-i-Iqbal and later marched towards the Governor House to protest against universities and demand online examinations. They were carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans against their university administrations for conducting physical examinations.

The administrations of various universities had recently issued schedules for on-campus examinations after they reopened across the country on Feb 1.

The protesting students said they were not in favour of holding exams since the syllabus could not be completed due to the pandemic. They expressed concern over online classes and demanded holding exams online or they be promoted.

They stressed that they were now being told that exams would take place on campus, which was not possible since the syllabus was not completed properly.

Last year, educational institutes had promoted students to the next class/semester without conducting exams and on the basis of marks obtained in internal assessment and previous examinations.

However, the spokespersons of universities told Dawn the Higher Education Commission had issued directions for conducting on-campus examinations and they had to follow the policy.

They said previously the students were promoted without any exams, which was also done on the directions of the HEC and the government.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2021