In view of the prevailing situation owing to COVID-19 pandemic, Nagaland University (NU) has notified that the under-graduate odd semester examinations will be conducted online from January 18 to February 4. Appreciating the varsity’s move to hold the exams online, many students and parents are however worried that poor internet connectivity in the State could act as spoilsport, affecting the examinees.
Further, many parents maintained that the students also go through a lot of trauma while submitting their answer scripts online.
An assistant professor who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the students were more worried about whether they would be able to submit their answer scripts on time due to bad internet connectivity. A student of Dimapur Government College admitted that the hurdle of submitting answer scripts online was much more as compared to writing the exam physically. The student appeared to hold the internet service providers responsible for putting the future of students at stake.
Other students voiced similar concerns. They said submitting online answer scripts on time was a bigger challenge than writing the exams.
When contacted by this reporter, majority students from different parts of Dimapur complained of shoddy and erratic internet by several service providers with very low internet speed, no network stability, weak signal strength, unprofessional customer care service, etc. Though one internet service provider received major flak for its services, the students said other network providers were no better. A student from Delhi currently residing in Dimapur due to the pandemic, remarked that though recharge rates were almost the same throughout the Northeast and all over India, the network speed differed a lot in Nagaland.
Further, a young entrepreneur dealing in locally-made products, who runs his business through Instagram and Facebook, lamented that it was an arduous task keeping up with orders and replying to queries of clients due to the bad internet connectivity. It may be noted that Nagaland Post had several times in the past, reported about poor connectivity issues faced by residents of Dimapur and other parts of the State. However, there has been no improvement in the service nor any attempt made to redress the customers’ grievances.