Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) has ruled out the cancellation of exams for any of its students. On Wednesday, it issued a notification regarding the exam schedule. As per the UGC guidelines, final year/semester students will appear for the written exam in September while the others will appear in December.
The varsity’s Academic Council members met on Tuesday and reached a decision that written exams have to be held for students, regardless of the year/semester they are enrolled in. Lakhs of students are enrolled in the varsity and many were hoping that those in intermediate years/semester will get promoted following cancellation of exams. However, had reported last week itself that Ignou is unlikely to do away with exams due to ‘technical’ issues.
These technical issues, as told to TOI by a very high ranking official at Ignou, are related to the varsity’s status as a distance learning institute. “We have to ensure the credibility of degrees issued by Ignou. Majority of our students are professionals who are study on the side. And the time frame to complete a three year degree is up to six years. So to compromise on quality by skipping exams for a complete year/semester won’t help their cause,” said the official.
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The same official also cited the bi-annual admission cycle as another reason of conflict over who gets the waiver. “Admissions are done in January and July, with exams held in December and June respectively. So technically, only those who were due to appear in June should get the waiver because that’s when the lockdown happened,” said the official. Then there is the possibility of some students who should have appeared in January 2019 term-end exams (TEE) but chose to skip and appear in June, and demand exam waiver. “To how many people will the waiver be given,” the official had told TOI before the Academic Council meet.
Though final year/semester exams are to be held in September, not all students will be eligible to appear for it. The last date of filling the TEE form for September 2020 is July 31. Regional centres will inform students about practical examinations (if applicable). The Wednesday Ignou notification also clarified that those unable to appear for the September TEE due to the ongoing pandemic, will be given another chance in December TEE.
FACTS & FIGURES
Final year/sem students eligible to appear in September TEE
Programme: Masters degree, B.Ed
Month, year of admission: July 2018 or before
Final year/sem registration in: July 2019 or before/ January 2020 or before for semester based programmes
Programme: Bachelors degree, MCA, MBA
Month, year of admission: July 2017 or before
Final year/sem registration in: July 2019 or before / January 2020 or before (for semester system)
Programme: B.Com (AF, CAA, CFA), MLIS, BLIS, PG Diplomas and diplomas
Month, year of admission: July 2019 or before
Final year/sem registration in: July 2019 or before/January 2020 or before (for semester system)
Programme: Certificate programmes
Month, year of admission: January 2020 or before
Final year/sem registration: N.A
Courtesy: TOI
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