HEC allows online exams after ‘violent’ student protests
A day after several students were injured as a result of a violent protest against on-campus examination outside the University of Central Punjab in Lahore, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has allowed universities across Pakistan to conduct online examinations with “adequate safeguards”.
In a statement, the HEC said it “already allowed universities to use their discretion to conduct exams, either on-campus or online as long as the chosen mode provides a fair assessment of students’ performance”.
“Online exams either can be used if the universities administer ‘Open Book Exams’ or establish an invigilation system in a supervised environment. In this mode, universities will also have to use Turnitin software to detect plagiarism. Further, viva/oral exam may be integrated with the assessment where necessary, the statement added.
The HEC said the universities can hold “on-campus exams under strict compliance” of coronavirus SOPs.
“Universities may also have to organize make-up classes for two weeks in case students consider the course coverage to be deficient,” it said, adding that assessment of all “courses requiring psychomotor skills, such as medicine, engineering, subjects involving lab/studio work must be held on campus”.
Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood also shared the HEC decision on his Twitter. He said he was “happy to note that HEC has formally allowed the universities to conduct online exams with adequate safeguards”.
Sharing a picture of the HEC notification, Mahmood said that the decision would “pave the way for [universities] to devise the right procedures to quickly” hold online exams, adding that “education standards must be kept up.”
On Tuesday, a student protest outside turned ugly when security guards of a private university baton-charged students after they tried to enter the university and march towards the vice chancellor office. Five of them received injuries, with two in critical condition.
A day before, the police also used force to disperse the students who had gathered to record their protest against the on-campus examination despite the second wave of coronavirus.