Rajasthan focusing on two methods for evaluation

JAIPUR: The state higher education department is deliberating on two methods to evaluate the academic performance of 20 lakh students enrolled in its colleges and universities in the absence of annual/semester exams. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot had on Saturday announced cancellation of the exams due to the Covid situation in the state.
The evaluation will either be done on the basis of exams held before the lockdown or classroom performance in the entire academic session. State higher education minister Bhanwar Singh Bhati said they were also examining central government norms for the same to ensure that valid assessment is made.

In other states, they are depending upon internal assessment as the basis for annual scores, but in state none of the state university has such a system leaving no scope for evaluation on the basis of academic session.
Most of the universities have held upto 50 per cent papers and will find it easy to evaluate on the basis of scores. But, the problem arises in honours courses which were not held and in the semester exam system in which two exams are held in a year. In Rajasthan University, none of the honours subject exams was held leaving a question on how to evaluate the students.
“It should be seen as a temporary relief to students and during this period some sort of evaluation mechanism has to be developed. Awarding marks or percentage on the basis of last year scores is unjust and impractical,” said Rashmi Jain, vice-principal of Maharani’s College. The scores in degree colleges don’t matter for jobs but it is considered for appearing in competitive exams.
A professor in Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, wondered how to evaluate students who have not appeared in the last semester exam. “The government should have come up with some mechanism or the other for evaluation. For a smaller class with 30-40 students, even a teacher can create sometimes help but in bigger classes, it is difficult to evaluate,” said a teacher.