NSUI’s ‘SpeakUpforStudents’ bats for cancellation of exams for UG students
3 min read
Mysuru: Demanding cancellation of pending exams of major classes and promoting students on the basis of their past performance, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) has initiated a nationwide campaign, ‘Speak Up for Students’.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the academic year and uncertainty over exams has worried the students of major classes. Considering this, the students’ wing of Congress has taken up the initiative, said NSUI General secretary Nagesh Kariyappa to mysoorunews.com.
Apart from this, the NSUI is also batting for #NoFeesFor6Months.
It may be recalled here that the UGC issued a revised guidelines on July 6, which mandates exams for final year students by September. But students are not happy with this and they are appealing for cancellation of exams and this has been trending big time. To support their voice, many professors of repute including former UGC chairperson Sukhadeo Thorat too has stressed for promoting students on the basis of their past performance.
Explaining the reasons for their initiative, Kariyappa said:
- Session was disrupted mid-way due to the lockdown and students were sent home in a rush (many went without books).
- Online classes and exams are discriminatory due to lack of access for poor and rural students (at least two students have committed suicide).
- India is the third worst affected country in the world by Covid-19 virus. Traveling back to the universities to take the physical exam may expose them to the virus.
- For most undergraduate courses, the final term is only 1 out of 6 semesters and it is very much possible to extrapolate from past performance and other internal assessments.
- It is important to end uncertainty and allow students to prepare for the next year. Repeated UGC guidelines have created confusion and led to delays. There is no certainty that exams will be held in September either given the rising Covid19 numbers. This may result in wasting students’ year – academically and professionally.
- Concerns about devaluation of degree are totally misplaced – universities around the world have cancelled final exams, as have the IITs. Moreover reducing education to one exam alone is to take a very narrow-minded view of education.
The NSUI has been running a national campaign to scrap exams for the past two months. In fact, it was the first organisation (students and academics) to take this stand and when we first started the campaign, it was deemed frivolous, observed Kariyappa.
He further said that it held meetings with more than 100 Universities and submitted memorandums to VCs of almost 150 universities across the country, sent messages in the university Whatsapp groups, besides holding done district -wise protests. It also filed writ petitions in many states.
The concerted efforts have finally borne some fruit as the UGC Committee has recommended promotion of 1st and 2nd year students without exam on the basis of past performance.
Besides, 69 universities (of the ones we are tracking) have agreed to promote students; many state governments have also followed suit including Maharashtra, Odisha, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.
– Team Mysoorunews
Mysooru News
