In a letter addressed to heads of all centrally-funded institutions, Higher Education secretary Amit Khare said the decision on examinations will be reviewed again in the first week of June, 2021.
The Education Ministry has directed IITs, NITs, all centrally-funded educational institutions (CFTIs) to defer their offline examinations scheduled this month. The ministry, however, said that online exams can continue. The ministry’s request comes in the midst of worsening Covid-19 pandemic situation.
Amid the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education on May 3 asked all the centrally-funded institutions to postpone offline exams scheduled for May, 2021. Online exams, however, can continue. In a letter addressed to heads of all centrally-funded institutions, Higher Education secretary Amit Khare said the decision on examinations will be reviewed again in the first week of June, 2021.
The decision to conduct offline exams will again be reviewed in the first week of June, the letter reads.
The centrally funded institutes are central varsities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and National Institutes of Technology (NITs).
The government has earlier postponed the engineering entrance (JEE Main), medical entrance (NEET-PG) exams. As per the government decision, the NEET-PG exam has been postponed for at least four months and the exam will not be held before August 31. “Students will also be given atleast one month of time after announcement of exam before it is conducted. This will make a large number of qualified doctors available for Covid duties,” the release mentioned.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Association (JNUSU) in April wrote to the University Grants Commission (UGC), urging it to suspend exams in view of COVID-19.
“We, therefore, request that you issue a directive for universities across the country to suspend all examinations, submissions, presentations, and other evaluation activities happening at the moment taking into consideration the grave situation the country is undergoing,” the JNUSU had said in its letter.
The JNUSU also urged the commission to issue fresh guidelines on the conduct of examinations in the months to come. The last UGC guidelines on examinations were issued on July 6 last year and the pandemic situation has changed much since then, the letter said.
