Nagpur: Nearly six months after the new academic session commenced, albeit online due to Covid-19 pandemic, the Nagpur University (NU) is yet to announce the schedule of its regular semester examinations.
According to the students, who’re waiting for the schedule, their papers would have been over by this time in normal circumstances. If those are delayed further, their entire academic year would be stretched further till July-August next year.
NU Board of Examination and Evaluation (BOEE) director Prafulla Sable said they were awaiting instructions from the Maharashtra government in this regard.
“We’re waiting for directions regarding papers of second, third and subsequent semesters from the state higher and technical education department. The first year exams would be obviously delayed as their academic session commences from September-October due to delay in the admission process on account of pandemic-induced lockdown,” he told TOI.
He said there should be a gap of 90 days between the start of academic session and exams as per the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) norms and, therefore, first year exams would be held late.
The NU statutory members, however, flayed the administration for waiting for government’s instructions when there were no such conditions imposed by it on conduct of exams.
“The university is an autonomous body and should take its own decisions rather than depending on the government. It has statutory bodies like BOEE, Management and Academic Councils to deal with such issues. Ultimately, the students are suffering due to the inordinate delay. After the final year exams, which the government had directed to conduct online, there is no such prohibition on holding regular exams,” Management Council member Vishnu Changde told TOI.
A senate member added that NU should go ahead with regular exams as Covid-19 situation was under control. “They can even take online papers if offline mode isn’t possible, but at least conduct them. Else, even the next academic year would go haywire. At least, VC Subhash Chaudhari and pro-VC Sanjay Dudhe should consult education minister Uday Samant and others in the higher education department on this issue rather than blindly following the government’s diktats,” he said.
A senior NU official from the exam department charged the government for keeping all Maharashtra universities waiting on whether to conduct the exams in traditional pen and paper way or in the online format on mobile phones like in final year. “Though NU messed up entire online exams with its faulty planning and haste in conducting them, it proved to be a big hit among the examinees,” he said.