The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) told the Bombay High Court that the final year exams shall not be cancelled in view of covid-19 pandemic. AICTE is a governing organisation for university-affiliated and autonomous technical institutions. The council reported that it shall go with the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC). A revised schedule for final year graduation and post graduate diploma examinations has been released by the council.
UGC released the revised guidelines on July 6, which told the universities to not to cancel the final year exam in view of covid-19 pandemic. The council asked the universities to conduct the exams by September. The exams can be conducted through online mode, offline mode or a mixture of both.
A retired professor Dhananjay Raghunath Kulkarni filed a PIL which stated that the UGC should be regulating the norms of the exams guidelines and the state should not interfere that. AICTE filed an affidavit in response to that PIL. He also mentioned in that PIL that the June 19 government resolution (GR) should be kept set aside.
However, on July 17, the state government reported that it cannot allow the cannot allow final-year examinations for professional and non-professional courses due to the present coronavirus situation.
An affidavit filed through Ajeet Singh, the regional officer, the western regional office of AICTE stated, “Since the UGC, in view of the Covid-19 situation, has formulated the safety-conscious guidelines, the AICTE decided to follow the same guidelines since it takes into account not only the interest of students, the necessity of conducting an examination and also the health and safety of the students.”
It further added, “In view thereof, AICTE has requested all affiliated deemed-to-be universities, technical institutions, and polytechnic colleges to conduct the examination in offline (pen and paper) or online or blended (offline + online) mode.”
AICTE stated that it directed all the affiliated institutes and universities to adhere to the revised UGC guidelines during conducting exams.
The Council stated, “AICTE has also published a revised calendar in view of the revised guidelines of UGC and has instructed the institutions who have already started classes as per earlier calendar to either postpone the classes or conduct special classes for students who would be required to appear in final year exam of their graduation or diploma.”