During the past one and half years, all semester exams in the HEIs, including in the self-financing institutions, were conducted online due to the COVID pandemic lockdown.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department told DT NEXT that the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) has already issued a notification that the semester exams for all the diploma courses, which were scheduled for December, will be held through off-line mode.

"Semester exams for Engineering, Arts, Science, and Vocational courses will also be conducted through physical mode," he said adding this might be deferred time to time according to the pandemic situation.

Pointing out that during the lockdown period, the practical exams for students pursuing technical courses could not be conducted "it was also decided to conduct practical exams as per the schedule".

However, the official also said that all the HEIs will be instructed that all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), including social distance, will be maintained while conducting both written and practical exams.

"The management of technical institutions, including self-financing colleges, were instructed to sanitise all the apparatus in the laboratories before conducting any practical exams", he said. He added that institutions were also asked to conduct the exams on a rotation basis like semester exams for the second year students on one schedule and for students studying in third or fourth year on another date.

He said even for first-year students, semester exams will be conducted in physical mode and the notification in this regard will be issued soon by the Higher Education Department.

A senior DOTE official also said that other technical exams such as Typewriting and Shorthand will also be held as per schedule with all the technical institutes being instructed to follow all the latest SOPs issued by the government to ensure the safety of the students.

"Unlike previous attempt to conduct shorthand exams through speakers, which created controversies, this time instructors will dictate the content to candidates appearing for test," he added.