To,

The Minister of HRD

Chairperson UGC
Govt of India

Subject: Cancellation of University exams and evaluating students based on Internal assessment and
CCE pattern during this pandemic situation.

Sir,

Hope this letter finds you in good health. India has crossed more than 10 Lakh Covid Cases and is
now the third worst affected country in the world. Since reporting the first case about 3 months
back, the number of cases has only been on the rise.

On 6th July, UGC has released fresh guidelines that say Final Year Exams have to be ‘compulsorily’
conducted in the month of September. This has caused confusion, panic and immense stress
amongst the Students and Education Fraternity.

The UGC’s latest advisory on examinations is unfortunate because it takes us backwards rather than
forward. It effectively extends the period for holding of exams (for final-year/semester cohorts) until
September, the second such postponement. And it creates fresh uncertainty for states that had
already decided to cancel exams.

The recommendation to cancel exams was prompted by an unprecedented health emergency, not
by doubts about the value of examinations.

We would like to raise a few concerns on behalf of the students regarding the same.

1. When exams were originally scheduled, Covid cases were far lesser and it had not reached all
parts of our country. The cases have been steadily rising and we cannot be sure they would
decline by September.

2. Online Infrastructure and availability are poor in rural parts of our country; hence Online Exams
cannot be an option. Offline Exams would be an invite to community transmission.

3. Lakhs of final year students have secured jobs as campus placements or enrolled in private
Indian Universities or Foreign Universities. Universities will take at least 45-60 days to evaluate
the papers, meaning that our results will be released by December 2020 or January 2021. Exams
in September would mean they effectively lose all these opportunities.

4. Many of the students studying in universities have returned to their hometowns in different
states, so travelling back to the states to give exams would not only endanger their lives, but
their parents lives too.

5. Reputed Foreign Universities and Indian Universities like IIT Mumbai, NLU have taken a decision
to cancel exams even they have far lesser number of students, why insist of ‘compulsion’ of
these exams?

6. Most courses follow semester pattern which means subjects change per semester. It effectively
means a final year student has completed 85% - 90% of his course and even studied for the final
semester. Hence an aggregate of previous examination marks is used by majority of foreign
universities to evaluate students in these stressful times of Covid.

7. Former UGC Chairman Thorat argued that the uncertainty of Covid-19 pandemic will create the
“genuine need” of repeated postponements, which can be avoided altogether by adopting
alternative methods of evaluation, including past performance of students by applying CCE
(Continuous and comprehensive evaluation) formula. This is the need of the hour and a practical
solution in the interest of crores of students from across India.
8. Using alternative methods of evaluation based on each student’s own past performance (in
exams conducted in normal times) offers a fair solution and brings closure, with the option of
retaking the exam when normalcy is restored

9. When faced with such an emergency, cancelling exams has two main advantages: First, it avoids
the extended uncertainty created by repeated (but unavoidable) postponements. Second, it
protects the integrity of the examination by refusing to abandon its two most basic features –
impartiality, or equal treatment of all examinees; and close supervision to prevent cheating.

10. Given the realities facing the overwhelming majority of our students and institutions,
examinations held in the “online” or “mixed” modes will be biased as they will favour students
with better access to the internet and work against students whose access is precarious.

11. Cancelling the exams will help in protecting their “integrity” as the online mode may not give
equal opportunities to all examinees, and lack close supervision to prevent cheating. Cancelling
exams and evaluating students via CCE during a pandemic is “sensible” and “fair” because
examinations must not be “devalued”.

12. Many students got selection from many reputed institutes in India as well as in abroad. They
have to submit their final year result with in August-September. If we consider those universities
which are mentioned in UGC revised guideline all of them will start their academic year from
August. For this guideline many students will lose their most awaited dream place.

13. While the Universities like Princeton, MIT, UToronto conducted their online exam as their
facilities are able enough to carry out the whole procedure but in case of Universities in India, it
is just impossible to conduct an online based examination because of poor infrastructure and
lack of experience.

14. Students with year back and Supplementary in past year/papers/semester must be passed so
that their final result can be declared. For this previous year/semesters’ marks may be taken.

15. As you know that the state of West Bengal has been ravaged by a super cyclone Amphan
recently, and so many colleges have been transformed into quarantine centers. It is not feasible
to conduct examinations in the state of West Bengal in the upcoming months.

16. The most important point which is of paramount importance is, no exam or degree is more
important than the life of a student. If a student god-forbid gets infected and passes away his
degree won’t help him get his life back. We must realize students are the future of this country.
And the life of each and every student matters. UGC must take responsibility if anything ill is to
happen to any student and the responsibility to console the parent of each and every lost
student.

17. Students who are well equipped with computer and strong internet connection will give online
exams while in other hand the students or universities who are unable to give and arrange
online exams, will have to come to exam centers by risking their lives. This is a discrimination
between students which is against our constitution.

18. According to HRD they want to maintain uniformity of exams across India, but different states
have different COVID situation. Giving offline exams in Manipur is not same as giving offline
exams in Maharashtra.

19. Many states have imposed lockdowns and strict quarantine rules with regards to inter-state
travel. Universities have set the date for examinations within the last week of July to first/second
week of August. Students will have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine if they are
travelling from one state to another, effectively blocking them from appearing in the offline
examinations.
20. Universities claim that they will follow “protocols” to prevent the spread of contagion inside the
examination hall. But what we’d like to ask is how will they ensure the safety of students while
travelling to and from the exam center. Also, some Universities have mentioned that if students
appear with symptoms of cough or fever, they will be made to write an exam in a separate room
which is totally inhumane and further exposing the students to COVID or making it worse by
dehumanizing them in such a manner.

21. As per the results of a survey performed by Statistica across India in 2019, India's internet
penetration stood at around 38%. From the following data one can infer that just 1/3rd of the
whole Indian population has access to proper internet, yet our situation is being compared with
countries like Sweden (96.4% penetration), Norway (98.4%), UK (95%) and USA (88%). When you
cannot provide access to fair resources to each and every student, online exams become
discriminatory. We neither have the infrastructure nor the experience to be able to conduct
 exams on the scale of countries like UK, US, Sweden etc. Comparing their situation to ours is
being disconnected from reality.

22. Due to the pandemic situation and lockdowns many students left their PG immediately, leaving
their important stuff behind. But they still have to pay rent on the PG, even though they are not
residing there. This puts the students in a financially difficult situation Some, students are paying
the room rents by partime work. Now there is not possible situations to do the work.

23. Only 8% of all households with members aged between 5 and 24 have both a computer and an
internet connection. (Source: NSS 75th round Survey by NSO India)

24. Finally, the financial situation. Our current economy is going to be moving into the dark ages. In
these dire times even if a student survives the deadly disease the financial burden which will
befall him/her while recovering will surely insure his/her financial death in some fashion. We can
safely say the future of the student is most definitely in the dark either way.

You will kindly appreciate that the students and teaching communities are the assets of our country
and the world. We must take proper care of their physical and mental well-being. They should not
feel upset.

For the sake of our youth, I urge the honorable HRD Minister and UGC to personally intervene and
cancel final year exams of central government and state universities and evaluate students based on
their internal assessment by adopting and promoting CCE pattern and save the future.

Regards,
All Final Year Students and their
Parents