Nagpur: Under fire from students across the state for its decision to conduct summer examinations in the offline mode, the Maharashtra government in its letter to all universities has clarified that it wanted to ensure uniformity in holding papers to avoid any disputes.
The clarification came from the state higher and technical education department’s letter to all universities on April 27, where minutes of the vice chancellor’s meeting with minister Uday Samant and other top officials were mentioned.
Quoting the consensus reached among VCs after the meeting, the letter (a copy is with TOI) mentioned the guidelines to the universities on conducting the examination.
Accordingly, the universities were directed to hold forthcoming exams of undergraduate and postgraduate in pen and paper format.
The letter also addressed to the technical and higher education directors in Mumbai and Pune, directed the universities to hold final year examinations on priority so that the students could get enough time to apply for further studies and jobs.
The letter also addressed to Kavi Kulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University (KKSU), Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (BATU) in Lonere, Raigad, stated that the exams would commence across all government-run institutions from June 1 and be completed by July 15.
“All papers would have a two-day gap while the students would get 15 minutes more behind every hour. The universities would provide a question bank to the examinees to prepare for the exams well in advance,” the letter said.
Quoting Samant, TOI had exclusively reported about the government’s decision to conduct exams in detail on April 26.
The letter sent by officer Pravinkumar Pawar informed that the government had granted permission to higher education institutions to resume physical classes from February 1, through a notification of January 25. It was also informed to them to conduct all exams before February 15 in online mode and in offline format after this date following a significant reduction in the Covid-19 cases in the state.
“The views of VCs and Board of Examinations and Evaluation (BOEE) directors of all universities were taken into account before reaching consensus on various issues. All of them agreed that due to the Covid-19 pandemic for the last two years, the examinees have no habit of writing the exams in pen and paper format, and therefore, offline papers must be resumed, as the conditions are conducive for it,” the letter stated.
