Academics, activists, students cry foul over final year exams in September. UGC order causes consternation among state students. Yuva Sena says students could lose jobs, admissions; Students plan legal recourse
Mumbai: The decision of the union Human Resources Development (HRD) ministry to insist on exams being conducted for final years of all higher education courses, has led to much consternation among students in Maharashtra. The worst affected by this new directives would be the 7.5 lakh students of the final years of the Arts, Commerce and Science graduate courses (BSc, BCom and BA) whose exams had been cancelled by Maharashtra now will have to give exams in September.
Sources said that the universities in Maharashtra were already in the process of preparing graduation mark sheets based on aggregate scores, when this directive came in. Students now stand to lose an entire academic year if the exams are conducted as per the Center’s directives.
Joint secretary of National Forum for Quality Education (NFQE), associate professor Kushal Mude told thenews21, “If final year exams are conducted in September and mark sheets received in November, than students will lose their admissions to post-graduate courses like MTech, MBA, IIM’s etc. The entrance for many such PG courses are already over and students’ just need to submit final year mark sheets to confirm admission. But, with mark sheets being delayed, a question mark is raised about their PG admissions now? There is no clarity on when the next academic year will start. The state should invoke the powers vested with it under the provisions of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, to decide on this issue. Otherwise, it will cause utter chaos.”
Mude added, “Even the prestigious IIT, Mumbai had chosen to cancel exams and not go in for the online proctored certification exams under the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), having capacity of conducting exams for over 20 lakh students, as the system was not found to be fool proof enough during the mock tests.”
Siddharth Ingle, founder-president of Maharashtra Students Union (MASU) stated, “The UGC has been issuing such conflicting guidelines. Earlier on April 29, it said, that online exams could not be conducted, but now it has allowed blended exams (online + offline or pen-paper exams). Again, while UGC had allowed states to take a call based on local circumstances, now they are deciding on exams for all. The Maharashtra Students Union (MASU) is approaching UGC for relief failing which we may pursue legal course on the issue.”
Students across the country have already started raising their voices against the government order and StudentsLivesMatters and Cancelfinalyearexams were trending on twitter on July 7, a day after the UGC order. In Maharashtra, the student’s wing of Shiv Sena, the Yuva Sena, too shot off a letter to the Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, asking the government to reconsider its decision.
Secretary of Yuva Sena, Varun Sardesai stated: “Lakhs of students had secured admission in campus placements or enrolled in private Indian Universities or foreign universities. Exams in September would mean they effectively lose all these opportunities.” Sardesai also questioned the Center’s directive of conducting online exams with online infrastructure being poor in rural areas and offline exams being an invitation to “community transmission”. All eyes are now on Maharashtra on whether it toes the Central line or stands up for the student community.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant also shot a letter to Pokhriyal seeking uniform guidelines to award degrees for final year students based on appropriate formula. Samant also referred to the UGC guidelines as ‘mere advisory’ and not mandatory.
