New Delhi: Due to the increasing cases of coronavirus, the University Grant Commission (UGC) has been planning to cancel the final year examinations and semester examinations in colleges and universities. It may delay the academic calendar and is planning the next session to start from the month of October.
The Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal said that he had advised the UGC to check on his earlier guidelines. The revision of the guidelines would be based on the health and safety of the students. All these decisions were taken before the cancellation of Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was being heard by the Supreme Court.
The Ministry and the CBSE said that the final decision would be declared by Thursday. The class 12 examinations were expected to begin on July 1.
In the month of April, a UGC panel chaired by the Central University of Haryana Vice-Chancellor R.C. Kuhad suggested that the final year could be held in the month of July while the other semesters would be graded as per the internal assessment of the students. Also, the new academic year could begin from August 1 for the second and the third-year students and September 1 for the first-year students.
Other alternative methods are also taken into consideration if examinations are to be cancelled. Although the decisions would be taken by each university individually, the state government rules and several vice-chancellors said that they would wait for the decisions of the Central body before taking any final decision.