UGC exams-by-Sept order not fair: Bengal to MHRD

UGC exams-by-Sept order not fair: Bengal to MHRD

‘Move Against Spirit Of Federal Structure’

Somdatta.Basu@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:  10.07.2020

The Bengal government on Thursday wrote to higher education secretary, MHRD, Amit Khare criticising the UGC’s recent directive to universities, asking them to hold terminal semester examinations compulsorily by September end.

State education secretary Manish Jain said the move was against the spirit of the federal structure enshrined in the Constitution of India, as ‘education’ is placed in the concurrent list and Bengal was never consulted by the UGC despite a request.

Jain pointed out that some states and UTs such as Punjab, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Puducherry had already decided not to hold the terminal semester exams while several IITs had called off theirs.

A senior academic, however, argued that since UGC had been constituted by Parliament, in the event of a Centre-state conflict, the central laws prevailed. The present disaster act also gives the Centre a wide berth. Moreover, there should be uniformity in assessment rules to enable students to apply across colleges and universities, the academic said.

The state has mentioned that while the April advisory issued by the statutory body allowed universities to be flexible and the government or any competent authority to issue guidelines, the revised circular on Monday is in conflict with the former.

Reasoning why the state had opted for a blended model for both online and offline modes, Jain in his letter pointed out that looking at the current trend of rapidly growing number of Covid-19 cases and the projections, it could not be predicted if the situation would be conducive to holding exams by September-end.

“Besides, going through the statistics of the Government of India on digital access across the country, it will not be appropriate to hold online exams, which will be discriminatory against a large section of students, especially in rural areas, who do not have access to computers and the internet,” the letter states.

A source in the state government said Bengal’s exam advisory was based on UGC’s April guidelines, wherein universities were given an option to provide due weightage to internal assessment and performance of a candidate in earlier semesters to ensure transparency.

“Moreover, our advisory has a provision for holding special exams after the situation normalises for such students who wish to appear in a formal examination instead of the alternative evaluation method,” the source said, stressing that it would be difficult to undo such an action because state universities had already acted upon the advisory.

Conducting the terminal semester exams by September 30 will not only delay results, but also be detrimental to the career of and cause financial distress to many students who are dependent upon securing a job to sustain themselves and their families, the letter to the MHRD secretary pointed out. “It will also restrict students from applying for further higher studies, nationally and internationally, thereby demoralising them and their families,” the letter added. The state higher education department has conveyed to UGC that it is looking forward to a positive response.

Besides, going through the statistics of the Government of India on digital access across the country, it will not be appropriate to hold online exams, which will be discriminatory against a large section of students, especially in rural areas, who do not have access to computers and the internet.

It will also restrict students from applying for further higher studies, nationally and internationally, thereby demoralising them and their families

Manish Jain’s letter to MHRD