Will UGC cancel Final year and Semester Examinations of Colleges and Universities in India?
New delhi sources stated that in view of the gravity of the Covid19 pandemic, the university Grants Commission (UGC) may tilt in favour of cancelling final year and semester examinations of colleges and universities in the country. Highly placed sources in the Ministry of Human Resource Development see this prospect on the horizon in view of the rapid rise in the number of daily cases of COVID-19 across the country. Consequently, the UGC may advise all the colleges and universities to cancel their final year examinations besides semester examinations.
The UGC may also recommend more delays in the academic calendar, pushing the next session to October. The latest buzz on the likelihood of the UGC recommending cancellation of examinations started with a message by Human Resource Development minister ramesh pokhriyal Nishank on Wednesday. The Union minister messaged that he had advised the UGC to revisit its earlier guidelines on these issues. “The foundation for revisited guidelines shall be health and safety of students, teachers and staff".
Apparently this comes a day before the supreme court hearing on the question of cancellation of Class 12 and 10 examinations of the Central Board of Secondary education (CBSE) keeping in view the spread of COVID-19. In their response, the HRD ministry and the CBSE told the apex court that a final decision on the issue would be communicated by Thursday. The Class 12 examinations are supposed to begin on July 1 as per earlier schedule. The UGC’s guidelines, which were prepared based on the panel’s report, had then also recommended that the new academic year could begin on august 1 for the second and third year students, and september 1 for the first year students.