In a significant decision, the Maharashtra government On Friday announced its decision to cancel the crucial final year examinations for all professional and non-professional courses in all state universities for the current academic year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As many as 734,516 were due to appear for examinations in various non-professional courses (like BA, BCom, BSc., etc) and another 283,937 for professional courses (like BE, LlB, BCA, etc) for the AY-2019-2020 final year examinations scheduled by 14 government universities, Higher & Technical Education Minister Uday Samant said.
The decision follows the recommendations of a state-level committee appointed as per the UGC guidelines which submitted its report last month, and a series of meetings held since.
However, owing to the pandemic and the series of lockdowns since March, all examination schedules for the AY-2019-2020 have gone haywire.
For the non-professional degree courses, the students' performance would be assessed on the basis of their past examination results for passing them and awarding degrees this year.
Nevertheless, in case there are students who opt for writing their examinations, they will have to make a written application to the university or the district collectorate concerned and depending on the Covid-19 situation, a suitable decision would be taken in the matter.
As far as the professional courses are concerned, while the state has expressed its inability to conduct their examinations, the final decision would be taken by their central governing boards/councils which would be conveyed later.
On the issue of backlog of past students, a separate announcement will be in the next few days, said the official.
Citing reasons, the government has said that as many as 41 varsity buildings and 198 students hostels have been taken over for Corona patients' isolation, and a majority of the students have vacated these premises to return to their homes.
In view of the pandemic, it would be difficult to complete the entire examination formalities like setting question papers, finalising exam halls and centres, paper checking, marksheets, declaring the results, revaluation, police security, the movement of students, teachers, academic staff, etc.
( With inputs from IANS )