Odisha Again Requests HRD Ministry Not to Make It Mandatory to Conduct Final UG, PG Term Examinations

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has once again requested the Union HRD Ministry not to make it mandatory to conduct final undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) term examinations mandatory in view of COVID-19.

State Higher Education Minister Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo wrote to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal requesting him to allow the State Public Universities Of Odisha to adopt the alternative evaluation guidelines issued by the Odisha Government on June 18 instead of conducting examinations as per MHRD/UGC revised guidelines.

“The Covid-19 situation in the country has worsened in the last 15 days since I wrote to you on 09.07.2020. The situation is most likely to aggravate further in the coming months. For the reasons detailed below, it is neither possible nor advisable to conduct UG & PG final year/semester examinations in the State of Odisha as per the revised MHRD/UGC guidelines dated 06.07.2020”, the Odisha Minister said.

The number of UG & PG final semester/year students in Odisha is about 2 lakhs. Most of them belong to low and middle income group and do not have desktop or laptop or decent smart phone at home. Most of them also stay in rural areas not having reliable Internet connection. Therefore, conducting online examination for such a large number of students is simply not possible. Conducting physical examination will expose the students, the college staff and their family members to the risk of Covid-19. As public transportation is now virtually non-existent, it is not possible on the part of the students to come to their college. For hostellers, it will be a herculean task to accommodate them in hostels maintaining all the Covid-19 protocols, he said.

As the hostel accommodation is limited, many students used to stay in private rented hostels/houses around colleges. As colleges were closed down since 24th March, 2020, all of them have gone back to their native places. The house owners will now not allow the students to come and stay in their houses/hostels considering the Covid-19 risk.

A number of colleges are presently being used by District Administrations for Quarantine Centre, Covid Care Home, Covid Care Centre, Covid Care Hospital, etc. Students coming to these colleges for writing examination will be exposed to the Covid-19 risk.

Conduct of examination in September’ 2020, as advised by UGC, will get further delayed as the COVID-19 situation is worsening in India. In that case, the academic calendar will go off the rail completely jeopardizing the future career of lakhs of students.

If the alternative evaluation system can be accepted for intermediate year/semester students, it should also be accepted for final semester/year students. Students not happy with the alternative evaluation system (the number will be very less) will anyway get a chance to appear in physical examination to be conducted in November/December once the Covid-19 situation improves. Through the alternative evaluation system, the final semester/year result can be published by 31. August, 2020 which will not derail the academic calendar at all, the letter reads.