Around one lakh Twitter users have come out in support of Congress-backed National Students Union of India’s demand that college students across all semesters be promoted on the basis of internal assessment and that online exams should not be held as many may not have access to the internet.
One among several Congress leaders to have tweeted in support of the demand is the party’s Karnataka leader DK Shivakumar, who said that the NSUI’s appeal is important as the coronavirus pandemic has “made the future of students uncertain.”
Calling for an end to the uncertainty over college exams, NSUI in an earlier Change.org petition, had said that ,“Online exams are likely to be discriminatory to the underprivileged students given the highly uneven access to infrastructure and connectivity. It is also inadvisable to conduct exams without completion of course work in a physical class.”
In this context, the NSUI has demanded
- First and second year students be promoted without exams
- Final year students be promoted on the basis of past performance, with 10 percent extra marks
- Universities should completely waive semester fee
Several users tweeted with #PromoteStudentsSaveFuture and demanded that exams be cancelled and students be promoted.
What the UGC Said About Exams
In an advisory dated Wednesday, 29 April, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had said that terminal semester examinations (popularly referred to as final year examinations) will be held in the month of July.
UGC also said that intermediate semester exams, which simply means exams between two semesters, will be held in July for states in which the COVID-19 situation has normalised. However, it is not clear as to how the UGC plans to define the situation in any state as ‘normalised.’
Only in the case of intermediate semester exams, the UGC said that, “If the situation does not appear to be normal in view of COVID-19, exams can be cancelled and students can be assessed on the basis of internal assessment.”
- 50 percent marks on the basis of pattern of internal evaluation
- 50 percent marks to performance in previous semester, if any
Internal assessment can include continuous evaluation, prelims, mid-semester, internal evaluation or whatever name is given for student “progression.”
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