Students of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) staged a protest against the university’s administration, demanding the exams to be held online. Police reportedly arrested and tortured some students as they protested against the administration for taking on-campus exams on Monday.
Earlier this week, NUML’s management issued a notification stating that the university will hold the final exams for the Fall semester on campus. Moreover, the decision came after the government announced that varsities across the country will reopen on February 1.
Along with students of NUML, the activists of Progressive Student Federation (PRSF) took to the streets of the capital and staged a sit-in demanding the NUML’s administration to withdraw from its decision of taking on-campus exams.
According to sources, the police closed the road leading to the educational institution. In addition, deployed a large contingent to control the student protest. During the protest, students also raised slogans against the varsity’s administration.
Apart from demanding examinations to be held online and not in person, they also demanded a decrease in the ‘unreasonable’ amount of tuition fee since classes are being held online. In addition to this, the students said that the ‘constantly changing exam schedule’ is also ‘unacceptable’
Meanwhile, the university administration argued that the demands were “baseless”. It said the exams would be held on campus as the federal government has allowed the reopening of education institutions.
Protest taken from the streets to Twitter
Many students have resorted to voice their concerns on Twitter as well, with a number of ‘seemingly worried’ individuals tagging Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the tweets.
According to the PRSF, the police baton-charged and arrested some students protesting for on-campus exams, few of them have been reportedly released. Social media users condemn the incident as the protest continues by the student organizations on Tuesday.
Police brutality over peaceful protest
Insisting the varsity’s administration to ‘immediately’ issue a notification, the students said they would continue the protest till their demands are met.
It may be added here that the education sector relies heavily on digital learning since the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Conducting classes online but exams on campus is not fair to students in any way.
In a similar incident before, the police shamelessly arrested innocent students in Quetta for protesting against useless online classes. With minimum to almost no media coverage till now, these protests often go unnoticed. Earlier, Karachi students also protested against a university giving exams way out of the syllabus.
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