Now It's MHA's Turns to Pull Legs of Final Year Students

Sad News for the Final Semester students. In amid of COVID19 situation two news today briefly hurts the consciousness of the final year students, First, India is on the Third position in most COVID cases and Second is the central government today has allowed the colleges and universities to hold the final year examinations for students in the middle of COVID19 outbreak.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Below tweet by ANI news agency explains many more, let's see it first...

MHA, in a letter to Union Higher Education Secy, today permitted conduct of exams by universities&institutions. The final Term Exams are to be compulsorily conducted as per UGC Guidelines and as per the Standard Operating Procedure approved by Union Ministry of Health: MHA pic.twitter.com/mTHWTy0GZ3

— ANI (@ANI) July 6, 2020

Its Nothing but the very Sad and disappointing News for the Final Semester students. In amid of COVID19 situation two news today briefly hurts the consciousness of the final year students, First, India is on the Third position in most COVID cases and Second is the central government today has allowed the colleges and universities to hold the final year examinations for students in the middle of COVID19 outbreak.

Yesterday, in a statement, the Union ministry of home affairs said it has sent a letter to the Union higher education Secretary permitting universities and institutions to conduct examinations.

In April 2020, the University Grants Commission constituted an Expert Committee to deliberate and make recommendations regarding the issues related to Examinations and Academic Calendar. Based on the Report of the Committee the UGC issued Guidelines on Examinations and Academic Calendar on 29.04.2020.

The Expert Committee was requested by the UGC to revisit the Guidelines and suggest options for examinations, admissions in the Universities/Colleges and also for the beginning of new academic session as the number of COVID cases is still increasing.

The Commission in its emergent meeting held on 06.07.2020 accepted the Report of the Committee and approved the 'UGC Revised Guidelines on Examinations and Academic Calendar for the Universities in view of COVID-19 Pandemic'. 

FAQ

What are the guidelines given by the UGC to the final year exams?

Yesterday, the commission comes with the following guidelines against the scraping of the final year exams,

The highlights of the Guidelines are as under:

• In view of the emerging situation related to COVID-19 pandemic in India, it is important to safeguard the principles of health, safety, fair and equal opportunity for students. At the same time, it is very crucial to ensure academic credibility, career opportunities and future progress of students globally. Academic evaluation of students is very important milestone in any education system. The performance in examinations gives confidence and satisfaction to the students and is a reflection of competence, performance and credibility that is necessary for global acceptability. 
• The terminal semester(s)/ final year(s) examinations be conducted by the universities/ institutions by the end of September, 2020 in offline (pen & paper)/online/ blended (online + offline) mode. 
• The students of terminal semester/final year students having backlog should compulsorily be evaluated by conducting examinations in offline (pen & paper)/online/ blended (online + offline) mode as per feasibility and suitability. 
• In case a student of terminal semester/ final year is unable to appear in the examination conducted by the University for whatsoever the reason(s) may be, he/she may be given opportunity to appear in special examinations for such course(s)/paper(s), which maybe conducted by the university as and when feasible, so that the student is not put to any inconvenience/ disadvantage. The above provision shall be applicable only for the current academic session 2019-20 as a one-time measure. 
• The guidelines regarding intermediate semester/ year examination, as notified on 29.04.2020 will remain unchanged. 
• If need be, the relevant details pertaining to the Admissions and Academic Calendar in the universities and colleges shall be issued separately in place of those mentioned in the earlier guidelines issued on 29th April, 2020.

What is the summary of the UGC’s guidelines? 

The ministry said the end-of-term examinations are compulsory according to University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. "The final Term 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 mentioned.

Why Students are disappointed by this news?

A number of economic activities have started in 'Unlock 1' and 'Unlock 2', excluding containment zones. However, educational institutions have been asked to close their gates till the end of the month to curb the virus spread. Many students of the final year or semester who were pursued their degrees from the various universities around the county, few are stuck in their home towns which are so far from the universities and they have no option to travel even up to few kilometers in their home states. 

And this situation is worst with Mumbai University because of basic traveling issues, as local trains are not available to the students, therefore many of them not traveled to the university even for submitting their exam forms as no online fees payment option and form submission is available for the students, and many students who lived in hostels are already left Mumbai because for governments advisory in a pandemic situation, and now it's not feasible for them to travel towards the Mumbai as many parents are conscious about their children's health and even all districts are closed as traveling is allowed only within the district. 

The central government canceled and postponed many exams in the outbreak of the coronavirus so it's very hard for the final semester students to digest this news, as most of them are not mentally prepared for the exams, the courses like LLM pursuing by many students who are having law background already suffering for their bread and butter as many of them are the junior advocates and more than 90% offices not paying them basic monthly stipends, therefore they are not mentally prepared as they are facing survival problem now. 

Many students from the unprofessional and professional courses regularly demanding for the solution of online payments and exam form submission, and new exam patterns of the online examinations respectively. Yes, it's feasible for many students, but practically not possible for the students who left the cities and staying at their homes safely as we are not that much technologically advance with non-floating of internet connections.

In the current situations, students are totally confused because of various guidelines given by the different authorities in amid of coronavirus and demanding to cancel the final semester examination or authorities should come up with a new feasible solution which minimizes the mental hardness in the pandemic outbreak.