College Final Year Exams Will Be Conducted For Sure: HRD Minister

HRD Minister said 1st & 2nd year students can be evaluated internally, if the situation doesn’t normalise.

All 1st and 2nd years university students in Maharashtra will be promoted without exams. Final year exams to be conducted in July.

(Photo: The Quint)

Amid growing calls for cancellation of final-year college exams across the country, Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday, 28 May, reiterated that exams for final-year college and university students will definitely be conducted, while exploring different options.

The minister made these comments during a webinar organised by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

“I want to say that exams for students of final year will be conducted. But, we have to see how they can be conducted.”

Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, HRD Minister

Pokhriyal also said that he is hopeful about conducting university and college exams by July. For this purpose, he said that a report by the UGC on reopening of universities and conduct of exams has been submitted and that arrangements will be made in coordination with the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

However, if the situation doesn’t normalise in any given region, first and second-year exams in colleges and universities in that specific region can be conducted by combining internal assessment with scores of the previous semesters.

This idea was first suggested by the University Grants Commission, in its advisory to universities in April.

“In regions where the situation doesn’t normalise by then, we have decided that students of the first semester and first year will be evaluated on basis of internal assessment. Students of second year will be evaluated on the basis of internal assessment and scores of previous semesters.”

Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, HRD Minister

The minister’s comments come amid growing demands for conducting final-year exams through internal assessment. In the University of Delhi itself, student and teacher bodies have said that final year students should be evaluated on the basis of internal assessment, along with scores of previous semesters.