Odisha Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo requested MHRD not to make final year exams mandatory.
On Thursday Odisha Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo requested MHRD Ramesh Pokhriyal not to make final year exams mandatory. Arun Sahoo wrote a letter to MHRD Nishank requesting him not to make the conducting of final year exams of UG and PG students compulsory in Odisha amid of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The pandemic situation in Odisha has worsened in the past 15 days. Resulting to which the state government as well the higher education minister is reluctant about holding exams in the middle of a pandemic. Earlier also the state government of Odisha wrote to HRD minister Ramesh Porkhiyal highlighting the pandemic situation of the state. But no response came from the Human Resource Development ministry.
Arun Sahoo wrote a letter to MHRD stating, “I am again writing to you on this matter as we have got no response from the HRD ministry regarding the request made by the State Government of Odisha. Students and parents have become very anxious and restless due to such uncertainty and are contacting us in large numbers over the telephone as to whether they should start preparing for exams or not.”
He added, “The COVID-19 situation in the country has worsened in the last 15 days since I wrote to you on July 9. The situation is likely to aggravate in the coming months. For the reasons detailed below it is neither possible nor advisable to conduct UG and PG final year/ semester exams in the State of Odisha as per the revised MHRD/ UG guidelines dated July 6”.
There are about 2 lakh students who would be appearing for the final year exams of UG and PG in Odisha. And as the letter read, the maximum number of students belongs to lower and middle-class groups. They are skeptical about the fact if they have a desktop or laptop or a decent smartphone at home. Internet connection is another hurdle in the path of conducting online exams.
Moreover many colleges of Odisha are being used by District Administration Centers as COVID Care Home, COVID Care Hospital, etc. In such a condition the state can’t even conduct the offline exams. As coming to such centers for writing exams would increase the risk of students getting infected by the virus.
The government also urged MHRD to allow the colleges and universities of the state to adopt alternative evaluation guidelines issued by the State government.
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