Friday, July 10, 2020

Former UGC chief seeks cancellation of final-year exams


Former UGC chief seeks cancellation of final-year exams

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 10.07.2020

Former University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson Sukhadeo Thorat and a few professors from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University have jointly written to UGC asking it to reconsider its July 6 notification on exams.

“The UGC’s latest advisory on examinations is unfortunate because it takes us backwards rather than forward. It effectively extends the period for holding of exams for final-year/semester cohorts until September; and is the second such postponement. It creates fresh uncertainty for states that had already decided to cancel exams,” read the letter signed by professors Apoorvanand, Nandini Sundar and N Sukumar from DU and Ayesha Kidwai and Jayati Ghosh from JNU.

“The recommendation to cancel exams was prompted by an unprecedented health emergency, not by doubts about the value of examinations. When faced with such an emergency, cancelling exams has two main advantages: First, it avoids the extended uncertainty created by repeated (but unavoidable) postponements. Second, it protects the integrity of the examination by refusing to abandon its two most basic features — impartiality, or equal treatment of all examinees; and close supervision to prevent cheating,” the signatories added.

The letter said that examinations held in the ‘online’ or ‘mixed’ mode will be biased because they will favour students with better access to the internet.

“Cancelling exams during a pandemic is sensible and fair precisely because examinations are important and must not be devalued. It is to be expected that the uncertainties of a pandemic situation will create the genuine need for repeated postponements. Using alternative methods of evaluation based on each student’s own past performance (in exams conducted in normal times) offers a fair solution and brings closure, with the option of retaking the exam when normalcy is restored,” the letter further added.

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