Manish Sisodia during media address (Source: Twitter/@msisodia)
The Delhi government has decided to cancel exams for all the state government-run varsities in the national capital. The deputy chief minister of Delhi and state Education Minister, Manish Sisodia had taken to Twitter and informed about the decision. “In light of the major disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Delhi govt has decided to cancel all Delhi state university exams including final exams,” he wrote on Twitter.
Sisodia in a video message said, “These are extraordinary times and we need to have extraordinary decisions”. He said all intermediate and term-end university exams will be canceled and evaluation will be based on previous year exams, internal assessment, or any other “progressive” evaluation mode deemed fit by the respective university.
He added, conducting exams during the pandemic is not feasible but students need to have their degrees to apply for jobs or higher education. He said, “Conducting the exams during the pandemic will be unfair to students, and not holding back their degrees too will be unfair.”
He informed that this decision will only be applicable for the state government-run universities, however, the decision for the Central universities including Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will be taken by the Centre. Sisodia informed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will write a letter to the Union government asking to cancel exams for the central universities too.
In light of the major disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Delhi govt has decided to cancel all Delhi state university exams including final exams https://t.co/g4SFLqaBQK
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 11, 2020
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This is in opposition to the decision of the University Grants Commission (UGC) which has asked colleges and universities to conduct the final year exams by September-end. As reported by The Indian Express earlier, other states including West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Punjab have also objected to the UGC’s guidelines and expressed their inability to comply.