Chandigarh: A special committee of the University Grants Commission (UGC) that was formed to give new directions and guidelines regarding the conduct of exit class exams in universities and their affiliated colleges is yet to finalise them.
R.C. Kuhad, Vice-Chancellor of the Central University in Haryana and chairman of the special committee, told ThePrint that the guidelines will only be submitted to the UGC after a few days.
Meanwhile, speculation among students has been rife that the UGC’s committee is likely to recommend cancellation of exit class exams across the country.
Kuhad’s statement comes at a time when more and more states are opting to cancel exit class exams.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had last week announced the postponement of exit class exams in the state’s universities till 15 July. But both Punjab and Rajasthan cancelled university and college exams Saturday.
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Odisha have already announced cancellation of exit year exams in universities.
While some of these states have devised ways of marking students, others are still awaiting the fresh UGC guidelines on how to promote pupils.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had on 24 June asked the UGC to revisit its guidelines regarding the conduct of final semester exams.
I have advised the @ugc_india to revisit the guidelines issued earlier for intermediate and Terminal Semester examinations and academic calendar. The foundation for revisited guidelines shall be health and safety students, teachers and staff.@PIB_India @MIB_India @DDNewslive
— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) June 24, 2020
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‘Devise formula for promoting students’
While postponing the exit class exams in Punjab last week, the Chief Minister’s Office had said a final decision will be subject to the new directions/guidelines that will be issued by the UGC.
However, the CM Saturday decided to not wait and gave directions to the state’s universities to devise a formula to promote final year students whose average semester marks in the previous year’s examination is more than the minimum pass marks.
Haryana, on the other hand, has said all students shall be promoted to the next semester with 50 per cent weightage to be given to internal assessment/assignment and another 50 per cent to marks scored in previous year’s examination.
Students in both states will have the option to take physical exams later for improvement of grades.
Also read: Colleges could drop plan to conduct offline exams in July as Covid cases rise