Extend UG/PG exam deadline, Odisha urges UGC

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government today requested the UGC to extend the UG/PG exams completion deadline from September 30 to October 10. This will ensure scheduling of exams with at least one day gap so that exam centres can be sanitized properly, the state government said.

Odisha Higher Education Department Secretary Saswat Mishra wrote a letter to the UGC in this regard. “Preparedness to conduct the examination was discussed with University Vice-Chancellors and Principals of Autonomous Colleges on 31.08.2020 through video conferencing. All of them are of the view that since they had earlier not planned to conduct final semester/year UG and PG examinations, about twenty days-time would be required to make necessary preparation for conducting the examination. Therefore, the conduct of the examination can commence from 20.09.2020. Secondly, since there will be multiple examinations (subject-wise and paper-wise), three to four examinations need to be slotted on all days, till 30.09.2020, so as to complete the examinations by 30.09.2020. Conducting multiple examinations on a single day would lead to the congregation of a large number of students in the examination centre which will make compliance of Covid-19 prevention protocol difficult,” Mishra said in the letter.

“Conducting examinations on every day, without any gap, will also lead to Universities and Colleges not getting enough time to sanitize and disinfect the examination centres before the next day of examination. All Vice-Chancellors and Principals, therefore, requested for extension of the 30.09.2020 dateline by 10 days, i.e. up to 10.10.2020,” he said.

On behalf of the state government, he urged the UGC to consider the extension of the deadline up to  October 10.