11-member panel to take call on semester exams

11-member panel to take call on semester exams

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  05.06.2020

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday formed an 11-member committee to decide on semester examinations in college, amid indications that universities are mulling doing away with them.

Higher education secretary Apoorva will head the committee, which will work out modalities and adopt guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for conducting semester exams. The committee includes vice-chancellors of seven state universities and three IAS officers - youth welfare and sports secretary, Tamil development and information secretary, and directorate of technical education commissioner.

The state universities under the higher education department are not in a position to conduct the semester exams in view of the pandemic Issuing the order setting up the committee, chief secretary K Shanmugam said it should give recommendations in the light of the UGC guidelines for conducting semester exams.

The union HRD ministry had asked the UGC to revisit its guidelines for the semester exams, final semester exams and academic calendar in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sources said the semester exams are likely to be cancelled for students and marks may be awarded based on internal assessments. While Anna University is planning to hold semester exams online, other universities also have been considering alternate options.

“There are many challenges in holding online exams. If students are promoted without exams, a significant portion of final year students are having arrears. The committee may have to find solutions for these issues,” a college principal said.