Maharashtra varsities trying to ensure students can appear for exams from home, says education minister Uday Samant

Maharashtra higher and technical education minister Uday Samant said on Monday that it may not be possible to hold the final year examinations of the varsities in the state in September. The tweet stated that the universities are trying to ensure that students do not have to step out for exams and can appear in the final year tests from their homes. The minister further said that it may not be possible to hold the exams until 30 September, and the vice-chancellors have given the opinion that the state government should request the UGC to extend the deadline for holding the exams till 31 October.

अंतिम वर्षाच्या परीक्षा विद्यार्थ्यांना घरातूनच देता येतील असाच प्रयत्न विद्यापीठे करत आहेत ..परीक्षा 30 सप्टेंबर पर्यंत घेता येणार नाहीत 31 ऑक्‍टोबरपर्यंत यूजीसीने मुदतवाढ द्यावी अशी विनंती शासनाने यूजीसी ला करावी असे मत कुलगुरूंनी मांडले.

— Uday Samant (@samant_uday) August 31, 2020

This comes after most universities of the state agreed to conduct the final exams in the first week of October, as reported by The Times of India. It was decided that the results will be released by the end of October. A special committee created to take the best possible decisions in the matter is currently deliberating the mode of exams with online open book tests and assignments being some of the options. In order to give a decision regarding the final year exams in Maharashtra, the committee was formed with the vice-chancellors of various universities. This panel has been tasked with deciding the schedule and modalities of conducting the exam. It is headed by Mumbai University VC Suhas Pednekar. The education minister had a meeting with the panel on Monday, reported Mumbai Mirror. Eleven vice-chancellors of the total 13 had sought extension of the 30 September deadline laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the said meeting. While these 11 varsities, including University of Mumbai, had sought for 31 October as the new extension date, two varsities - Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Nashik - had asked for the deadline of 10 November. The report added that a final decision regarding the date for both graduation and post-graduation courses was going to arrive in the upcoming days.