The Delhi government on Saturday decided to cancel all the examinations in the state universities in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that degrees will be awarded to the students based on evaluation parameters decided by the universities.
"In light of the major disruptions caused by the pandemic, Delhi government has decided to cancel all Delhi state university exams including final exams," Manish Sisodia said.
The development came two days after Delhi University (DU) postponed exams of final year undergraduate and postgraduate students of all streams scheduled to begin on July 10.
Manish Sisodia said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to replicate Delhi government's decision for all central universities across the country to end uncertainty among students regarding the exams.
Sisodia said Delhi government's decision did not concern DU, Jawaharlal National University (JNU) and other central universities in the national capital.
The state universities under the Delhi government include National Law University, Delhi Technological University, Ambedkar University, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Netaji Subhas University of Technology and Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women.
The Deputy CM, who is also Delhi's Education minister, said that studies in the universities were disrupted due to the pandemic, and it was not possible to conduct examinations. Unprecedented times require unprecedented decisions, Sisodia added.
"The issue was complex since no academic activities took place in this semester. It was not possible to hold exams without any studies. So we have asked universities to cancel exams and promote students to the next semester on the basis of past results or some other progressive method of evaluation," he said.
Sisodia said even though it was not possible to conduct final year examinations, providing degrees to students for jobs and future academic pursuits was necessary.
Sisodia also hoped that the prime minister will take cognizance of the CM's request to cancel exams of all central universities across the country and soon issue some directions.
With IANS and PTI inputs