Punjab Government has decided to postpone the exams for the exit classes in all the universities and colleges of the State till July 15.
Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, responding to concerns expressed by the students and parents on the conduct of examinations in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, on Sunday announced the government’s decision.
However, at the same time, he maintained that the final decision on the subject will be subject to the new directions or guidelines expected to be released by the University Grants Commission (UGC) any time.
Seeking to allay all confusion and uncertainty on this count, the Chief Minister said that the postponement till July 15 will also give all the stakeholders, especially the universities, time to adapt and align to the new guidelines that will come from UGC.
An official spokesperson said that the Chief Minister felt that there was need to remove confusion from the minds of students, teachers, and parents regarding safe conduct of examinations.
It may be recalled that Punjab’s universities had taken a decision to conduct exams of exit classes July 2020, in accordance with the guidelines issued by UGC on April 29. The UGC had then announced that it will review the situation again.
However, the decision regarding academic activities, especially conduct of examinations, is still awaited from UGC.
The Chief Minister has been repeatedly pointing out that since all the universities and colleges in Punjab are accredited or affiliated to the UGC, any decision on the exams can only be taken by the statutory body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
Notably, the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union had announced to boycott examination duties as Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) was making preparations to hold written examination for students of the final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses in its colleges from July 1.
The Union has, in fact, written an open letter to the Chief Minister telling him that his decision to wait for UGC/MHRD guidelines on examination matters had been violated by the University officials and also issued roll numbers of students to colleges.