The University of Kerala has refused to bow down to the pressure exerted by a section of the student community that has been clamouring for postponing the upcoming examinations by a month or until the conclusion of the general elections.
Several student organisations have urged the university to reschedule the examinations of LLB, B.Sc., B.A. and B.Com. courses, claiming that they were denied an adequate number of working days during the particular semester.
Some also stated that they have been preoccupied with the recent university youth festival so much that they were unable to prepare for the examinations.
Minor changes
University officials have stuck to their ground that the reasons cited are flimsy and do not warrant a major postponement of the examinations.
However, they have brought minor changes to the examination schedule on account of the common admission test that will be conducted by the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) on April 6 and 7 for UG and PG courses.
Certain examinations, including those of the sixth semester B.A., B.Sc., B.Com. [first degree programmes under the choice-based credit and semester system (CBCSS)] and sixth semester B.A., B.Sc., B.Com., BPA, BBA, BCA, BSW and B.Voc. (career-related first degree programmes under CBCSS), have been postponed to April 8, 10, 12, 16, 25, 27 and 29. They were originally slated to commence on April 4 and continue until April 17.
The varsity stance to persist with a largely rigid examination schedule since last year has paid dividends. While the results of the final-year examinations under the CBCSS in 2017 was declared by mid-July, the results last year came out much earlier, by the third week of June. This year, the officials expressed the hope that they would be able to announce the results by the third week of May.
Besides, certain logistical issues apparently also made it unfeasible to prolong the upcoming examinations. “Certain prominent colleges including SD College, Alappuzha, and Christian College, Chengannur, have been designated as vote counting centres for the elections.
A large number of students usually appear from the examination centres at these colleges, thereby making it impractical to accommodate them in other colleges,” P. Rajesh Kumar, chairman of the Syndicate standing committee on examinations, said in justification to the varsity move to not change the exam dates.
He added that the government had directed universities to clear backlogs as far as possible prior to the adoption of the uniform academic calendar the next academic year onwards.