UP govt forms 3-member panel of VC’s for recommendation for promoting students without exam

 The state government on Friday formed a committee consisting of three vice-chancellors to suggest measures on how to promote students to the next semester without exams across all universities and degree colleges of the state

The state government on Friday formed a committee consisting of three vice-chancellors to suggest measures on how to promote students to the next semester without exams across all universities and degree colleges of the state. The committee is expected to submit its recommendations in a week because in this Covid-19 situation conducting the physical examination is a difficult task, an official said.

The vice-chancellors in the committee are prof Alok Kumar Rai, vice-chancellor of Lucknow University, prof Vinay Kumar Pathak, vice-chancellor of Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur and prof Krishna Pal Singh, vice-chancellor of Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University in Bareilly, according to a letter issued by Abdul Samad, special secretary, UP government.

“It is a critical situation. Last year students were promoted without exams under special circumstances. This year the situation is even worse. We had to work out a solution,” said Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak.

Lucknow University vice-chancellor prof Alok Rai had already sent a letter to the government to allow to promote students without examinations. He said, “The three-member committee will discuss and try to reach out at a consensus on how to promote students.”

University Grants Commission had recently stated that it had requested the universities to keep the offline examinations in abeyance during May 2021. The UGC in the notice released on May 6, had requested the higher education institutions to keep the offline examinations in abeyance during May 2021 to avoid physical gathering at the campuses and also to provide much-needed relief to the students, faculty, and the staff who are presently occupied in fighting Covid-19 in one way or the other.

Last year also the state government had formed a panel headed by Chaudhary Charan Singh University (Meerut) vice-chancellor prof NK Taneja to recommend promoting students to the next semester without exams.

After a committee of four vice-chancellors recommended the cancellation of annual examinations in universities across the state given a spike in Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said a final decision on the issue will be taken by the state government