Chennai, May 10 (IANS): Top Chennai colleges are divided over the conduct of online examinations with some like the Loyola College, and the Guru Nanak College planning to conduct online examinations while the D.G. Vaishnav College has postponed their semester examination till June.

The Madras Christian College and the Women's Christian College have already completed their online examinations.

Chennai colleges were planning to conduct the online semester examination from May 3 onwards after the election results but the state has announced a lockdown from May 10 to May 24.

Talking to IANS, Loyola College Principal Thomas Amritham said: "We have already completed four examinations and three exams are scheduled till May 15. Students and faculty members want to complete the exam and since online examinations are being conducted, students need not come out of their homes. Staff can invigilate the exams from their homes, and hence, we have decided to go ahead with the exams."

Guru Nanak College Principal M.G. Raghunathan told IANS: "We have asked the faculty members to prepare to conduct and monitor the examinations from their homes and we will continue with this unless the government says no to conducting online examinations."

The Madras and the Anna Universities have, meanwhile, decided to defer the examinations owing to non-payment of exam fee by students as also owing to the setting of question papers. The Madras University had planned to start the online semester examinations from May 17 and now will start the online examinations for affiliated college students after the lockdown is over.

D.G. Vaishnav College Principal, Santhosh Baboo, told IANS that they were planning to start the online semester examinations from May 17 "but as all the students do not have an internet connection, we have postponed it".