Move to cancel final-year degree exams comes under fire

Educationists, guardians and students have come to question the move made by the CM to cancel final-year exams. This comes a day after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced the cancellation of all final-year exams of degree courses.

The issues that were raised while condemning the move was the interference by the government in a matter that is in the jurisdiction of universities which are autonomous bodies. The second point of criticism was the fate of students who were due to appear for allowed to keep term (ATKT) exam and whether these students will be treated differently when they approach companies for jobs. Some fear that the companies would not take ATKT students seriously.

As per sources, during a recent meeting between CM Thackeray and the vice-chancellors, they had backed the idea of conducting final-year exams. Multiple academic councils of state universities had also passed a resolution on conducting final-year exams. Moreover, the stakeholders also cross-examined the government’s hurriedness in cancelling exams, which could have been pushed until the month of September.

Multiple academicians across the board also spoke about the lack of transparency on whether the announcement also applies to postgraduate students, many of whom seek jobs or opt for foreign education after the completion of their degree. Progressive Education Society Chairperson Gajanan Ekbote further called the government’s decision academically unsound adding that the move could cause Pan-India bodies such as Pharmacy Council of India or Council of Architecture to not recognise the degrees of students without examinations. This could bring about problems for the students of architecture, pharmacy or engineering.

The state-level committee had earlier in its report recommended decreasing the number of hours for exams, multiple-choice questions, open-book tests or providing assignments to students as alternatives. However, in spite of this move by the state, CBSE and ICSE board schools are slated to hold exams from mid-June to July.