Maharashtra: University, College Students Will Get Extra Time For Offline Exams

This year, student-friendly approach has been taken into consideration as the exams are being held offline amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a welcoming news for students this year, Maharashtra Minister for Higher and Technical Education, Uday Samant has instructed Maharashtra Colleges and Universities to give extra time of 15 minutes per hour during their offline exams. 

Also Read: Non Vaccinated Colleges, University Students Will Be Permitted To Attend Classes: Uday Samant

This means for the one-hour exam, students will get extra 15 minutes while for two hours’ exam, students will get extra 30 minutes.

The decision comes days after Mumbai University instructed autonomous colleges to provide its students with extra time during the offline exams. 

He also stated that the decision was also made after taking into consideration that the students have not given offline exams in nearly two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online mode of education.

Many college and university students in Maharashtra had approached the minister requesting for the same. On April 13, in the meeting with the various Vice Chancellors of Maharashtra state universities, Samant suggested that universities should give 15 extra minutes per hour to every student appearing for offline exams this year.

Also Read: Maharashtra: Schools, Junior Colleges Can Go On Summer Vacations From "This" Date

Later, taking it to Twitter, the minister tweeted: "COVID-19 forced education to the online platform and exams too were being conducted online. Considering that after a break of two years, students will be appearing for exams in offline mode, universities should give 15 extra minutes for every hour of the exam period to students."

कोरोनाच्या पार्श्वभूमीवर शिक्षण व परीक्षा ऑनलाईन पद्धतीने झाल्यामुळे विद्यार्थ्यांचा लेखनाचा सराव कमी झाल्याने, ऑफलाईन पद्धतीने परीक्षा घेताना वेळ वाढवून देण्याची मागणी होत होती, ऑफलाईन परीक्षांसाठी प्रती तास 15 मिनिटे वाढीव वेळ देण्याचा निर्णय कुलगुरूंच्या बैठकीत घेण्यात आला. pic.twitter.com/lIzcBhXJ7a

— Uday Samant (@samant_uday) April 13, 2022

Accordingly, the students who will be appearing for theory papers for 80 marks will be getting 30 minutes of extra time whereas students attempting the theory papers for 100 marks will get allotted 45 minutes of extra time.

On the similar lines, earlier, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), also known as Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) also decided to start the examination half an hour early than usual time to provide additional time provided to students to complete the paper as many do not have enough writing practice due to online learning.