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“Raju Vernekar
vernekar.raj@gmail.com
Over 7 lakh college students are in dilemma with directive of University Grant Commission (UGC) to universities and colleges that no final year University examinations 2020, will be cancelled and they should be conducted by September-end, whereas the examinations stand cancelled as per the Maharashtra Government’s decision dated 19 June 2020.
UGC circular
In a circular issued on Monday, 06 July, 2020, UGC Secretary Prof. Rajnish Jain, stated that the examinations could be held in either online or offline or blended mode and the decision to hold examination was based on the report of the expert committee and the guidelines already issued by UGC on 29 April, 2020.
Guv’s objection
A chaos prevailed in Maharashtra, since on 19 May the Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant, wrote to UGC, saying that it will not be possible to conduct exams due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases. On 30 May, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, after discussing the matter with VCs of different universities, announced that the final-year exams will not be conducted. Following this, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in his capacity as a chancellor of universities in state and who is the final authority in the matters related to the universities under the Maharashtra Universities Act 2017, on 2 June, wrote to Thackeray, saying “You cannot unilaterally decide whether exams can be conducted or not.”
Despite this, on 19 June, the Maharashtra government officially cancelled final year examinations of non-technical courses (like B.A, B.Sc, B.Com) and stated that those who were willing to take up exams, should submit a letter to respective colleges/institutes, who will decide the future course of action. However about professional courses like engineering, law, pharmacy, hotel management, management, architecture, planning, computer science, physical education and pedagogy, the Government decided to seek the advice from the central councils.
This year, around 7.3 lakh students have enrolled in the final year of non-professional courses and about 2.8 lakh students have enrolled for the professional courses such as engineering, law, architecture, hotel management and MBA.
Role of professional bodies
The different colleges are governed by different councils at the central level. Medical colleges are liable to instructions by Medical Council of India (MCI), pharmacy colleges by Pharmacy Council of India, architecture colleges by Council of Architecture, engineering colleges by All India Council of Technical Education and law colleges by Bar Council of India.
Since the state government cannot directly decide the matters related to the universities and colleges, most of the universities are yet to issue circulars about final year examinations. There are over 4600 colleges affiliated to over 44 universities in Maharashtra. As of now 41 colleges and 198 hostels are being used as quarantine centres.
Students had become complacent
Due to the government’s decision to cancel the examination, most of the final year students had become complacent and had wound up their studies for the timing being. Now all of them will have to open their shops again.
The Government has already announced that, barring final-year and final semester students, others will be promoted based on their performance in previous years (50 per cent) and marks obtained in the internal examination of the current year (50 per cent). Respective universities have issued circulars on the formula that will be applied while calculating the marks. As per the state-level committee report on the issue, students who are not happy with the marks, based on which they are promoted, can appear for exams once the universities begin
First-year students fall into two types of courses – those with 100 marks exam and those who follow a 75:25 pattern, where 25 marks are for internal exams. In the former case, the marks of the first semester will also become the marks for the current semester, whereas for the 75:25 pattern, internal marks of the current semester and internal marks of last semester will be considered.
This rule applies to students of engineering, architecture and law colleges as well. The internal examinations across courses have already been conducted by colleges before lockdown. For students studying through distance learning mode, they will be provisionally passed for now, but will have to appear for exams once the universities begin.
Relief to ATKT students
BJP leader and ex-Minister for School Education Ashish Shelar said that the fresh UGC guidelines have proved that the decision to cancel the final year examination was taken by the state government keeping in the dark the Governor and those related with universities, in violation of university norms. After the uncertainty of nearly three months, now the government has a chance to hold examinations and ensure better future for Maharashtra students in job market as well as in their future career. The decision has also given life to ATKT students, who would have been declared failed.
The UGC’s decision to conduct examinations in September came after Union HRD ministry sent a letter to the Union higher education Secretary permitting universities and institutions to conduct examinations. The final year examinations are to be compulsorily conducted as per the UGC Guidelines on examinations and academic calendar for the Universities and as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the letter stated.
As per the guidelines, those students who have backlog should compulsory be evaluated by offline or online examinations as per ‘feasibility and suitability’. If a final year student is unable to appear in the examination, the university must arrange special examination for the student. This provision will be applicable only for the current academic session 2019-2020 as a one-time measure, UGC underlined.
In case a student of terminal semester/final year is unable to appear in the examination conducted by the university for whatsoever the reason, he or she may be given opportunity to appear in special examinations, which may be conducted by the university as and when feasible, so that the student is not put to any inconvenience or disadvantage, UGC said.
The educational institutions were shut in the last week of March to curb the corona virus spread and various examinations conducted by universities and higher education institutions remained suspended since then.
In the academic calendar for higher education institutions released on 29 April, UGC had stated that universities can conduct final-year or terminal semester examination between first July and 15 July and declare results by end of the month. However that decision was deferred.
“corona graduates”
In Maharashtra, some of the educationists had argued that passing students without conducting exams would cause this year’s batch of students to become known as “corona graduates” and hamper their job prospects. The students would receive “step motherly” treatment from employers during recruitment. Final-year exams would also provide a fair chance to students looking to improve their performance from previous terms.
Besides the state-level committee had recommended that colleges conduct two-hour exams instead of three hours, switch to open book tests, multiple choice questionnaires or assignment-based exams to make the process easier for students. The committee had also stated that these exams would help ATKT (allowed to keep term) students to clear their backlog. Though the CM had said that ATKT students may take exams later on to improve their marks and clear backlogs, the officials had said that not holding exams may also result in universities losing their place in national-level rankings and make Government ineligible for CSR funds and certain UGC grants.
Arguments against holding final-year exams
However some students had pointed out issues, including the state of their mental health due to the pandemic, lack of resources such as Internet and laptops, lack of access to libraries and mentorship as well as personal financial problems, as the grounds on which exams should not be held. Some experts had argued that owing to the glaring digital divide prevalent in the society, it will further cause distress to underprivileged students.
As per a survey conducted by the Maharashtra Students Union, 93.1 per cent of 32,378 student respondents had favoured cancellation of exams whereas the students under Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, had opposed cancellation of exams. But the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena student bodies had continued to support the government’s decision to cancel the exams.
Other states
Now with UGC’s new guidelines Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, who have cancelled all exams in higher education, will have to revisit their decision.
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