NAGPUR: Students today are really very confused about the final year and semester examinations. In a letter to the UGC, higher and technical education minister, Uday Samant demanded scrapping of these exams given the Covid-19 situation. Chancellor Bhagat Singh Koshyari wrote to CM Uddhav Thackeray saying not conducting final year exams would go against UGC guidelines and the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016. In an interview, Samant explains his stand.
In reply to the question” How Maharashtra Government coped with when you wrote a letter to the University Grants Commission regarding the examinations”?
Samant said. I am still firm on what I wrote. Given the big jump in Covid-19 cases in the state, it will not be possible to conduct summer exams at all this year, leave alone July as suggested by the UGC”.“It will mean playing with the lives of over nine lakh students.
What is Samant’s tale on Are Academicians, vice-chancellors are opposing the move?
He said ” The government is taking in review all the necessary steps so that its students have not to face any problem merely regarding their jobs and the future admission at the top institutions. The formula is being worked out. We’ve also told the panel of four V-Cs to work out modalities and they have met three to four times. There will be a solution in a week.”
He also had a meeting with some V-Cs who expressed apprehensions on how long we can keep the sword of exams hanging on students’ heads. He will review the overall situation in their universities and a decision taken in the larger interest of students.
How will the final year or semester marks be calculated? What about backlog students?
Their previous year or semester performance would be taken into consideration along with an internal assessment of this year in a 50:50 ratio. But nothing is finalized as of now. The exam for backlog students is a must and could be held even in January after the Covid-19 cases reduce.
The issue has snowballed into a political controversy. The opposition is raking it up. Coalition partners fully back it. In Gujarat, Goa, and MP, where BJP is in power, the governments don’t want exams.
The government of Maharashtra will look into every possible way to protect its students from the novel coronavirus and will ensure that it will not put the lives of 9 lakhs students in danger.
