Online Classes and Physical Exam:

Due to the Covid-19 the Pakistani government was decided to close all

educational institutes on Friday 2020. After that the cases of Covid-19
was rising swiftly so HEC decided the universities take classes online
whenever the Covid-19 cases are downfall. The whole year educational
system went to the online and universities took classes online and then
took paper online too. But recently Education Minister Shafqat
Mehmood announced the universities reopen from 1st February. So
universities also decide to take paper physical on campus, that thing
create chaos in students. Then students came outside the gates Numl and
Arid universities against the administration policy of conducting on
campus exams. Students claim that the quality of education that was
provided throughout the semester isn’t up to the mark and the Numl
administration had changed its decision 16 times regarding its policy to
conduct examinations.
They were carrying placards and banners recorded with mottos against
their university administrations for conducting physical examinations on
campus. 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. A number of
students also criticized the universities for charging full fee during the
closure and demanded the government direct universities to offer fee
concession to the students for the closure period. Due to the protests, a
number of roads in Islamabad were blocked because of which traffic
remained clogged. The metro bus service was also suspended.
At 8 o’clock on Monday evening police went to the students to negotiate
with the students. During the talks, they started beating the students and
arrested some of them as well. On the other hand, the police said that the
students attacked them during the talks. The protesters were released
later at night. Some student rights organizations such as the Progressive
Students' Federation have joined the protesters as well. They have
warned that the protests and sit-ins will continue until their demands are
met. But later the negotiation was succeeded with police base on the
police administration will talk to the universities administration and
paper will be online. After that the protesters dispersed peacefully after
recording their protest.