Considering that the Covid infection has come under control now; the upcoming summer session of university and college levels exams should be held offline. This decision was taken in an online meeting held by Higher and Technical education minister Uday Samant with all VCs on Monday morning.
According to sources, the meeting was held to review exam planning by different universities. The minister in the meeting insisted on offline exams, especially now that the pandemic has come to an end and normalcy is resuming in educational institutions. “VCs of different universities across state conveyed preparedness for the same and unanimously agreed to go back to the conventional offline pattern of exams, in the same meeting,” shared an official from the higher and technical education department of Mantralaya.
Even as summer exams in other state universities are yet to begin, Mumbai University has already started its summer session of exams in a blended mode. While exams of traditional courses are being held online, for professional courses students will appear for exams offline. When contacted Director of Board of Examinations and Evaluation, at Mumbai University Vinod Patil on how this decision impacts the blended mode of exams at MU; he said, “The professional course exams which are yet to begin are going to be held offline. And for traditional courses exams have already started online. And that schedule is going to continue.”
It is important to note that there has been much debate over the pattern of exams for the past few days, especially among students. Even as most universities have decided to take summer exams in offline mode, students are demanding exams to be held online. In fact, several protests were held in the past month for online exams.