The Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant gave his opinion in a letter to the Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal over the decision issued by the UGC’s guidelines in conducting the exams. The minister Uday Samant said that “mere advisory like the earlier guidelines” and mentioned that the guidelines are not mandatory.
Samant also asked for guidelines and methods to promote the students without an exam. He pointed out that the state is the most affected place with more than 2 lakh coronavirus cases. Based on the present situation, the court has taken measures to cancel out the exams.
The minister stated in his letter that, “In such unforeseen, uncertain and critically challenging situation, conduct of final-year exams for approximately more than 10 lakh students seems highly infeasible and, if conducted, would endanger the wellbeing of students, parents, teachers, supporting staff and other machinery involved in the process”.
The Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, on June 26, cancelled all the final year exams for the non- professional courses. The state also requested the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apply the same to the professional courses.
The UGC announced that the UGC on Monday announced that “the final term exams are to be compulsorily conducted as per the UGC guidelines on examinations and academic calendar for the universities”, as per the Standard Operating Procedure approved by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The council also announced that the exams were to conducted either through online, offline or a mixture of both by the end of September.
Several other ministers and parties are expressing their concerns and opinions with this regard.