New Delhi: University Grants Commission’s (UGC) former chairman Sukhadeo Thorat described the higher education regulator’s July 6 decision to hold final-year examinations as “unfortunate”. The commission’s guidelines to conduct final-year exams by September-end have left the students and teachers in quandary in view of COVID-19 pandemic.
The former head of the UGC wrote a letter to the current chairman Dhirendra Pal Singh on Thursday reminding him of the students’ demands across the country. The letter had 28 other signatories including professors from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“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 letter said.
“The recommendation to cancel exams was prompted by an unprecedented health emergency, not by doubts about the value of examinations,” the letter added.
Thorat served as the UGC chairman from 2006 to 2011.