Universities should not conduct exams amid pandemic: Sibal
NEWDELHI: Universities should not conduct examinations in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and even holding online tests is not right as it is “discriminatory” towards poor students, former human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said on Sunday.
The senior Congress leader further said that with almost half the 2020-21 academic year of schools over without proper classes due to the Covid-19 spread, board examinations for Class 10 should not be held next year as it would burden the students unnecessarily.
“What has happened is that half the year has been lost and we don’t know how long this pandemic will continue. There is no need for Class 10 board exams for a while for these two years -- this year and next year -- and then they could relook at this policy,” Sibal told PTI in an interview.
Sibal, who as the HRD minister had spearheaded a reforms process in the education sector under which it was decided to abolish compulsory CBSE Board exams for Class 10, said it was a sensible policy to have been followed but when the NDA came to power they reversed that.
“Thank god they have listened to some sane advice and they have cancelled the board exams. Consider the impact it would have had, especially on the poor students who don’t have access to any online facilities,” said Sibal, who was the HRD Minister from May 2009-October 2012 in the UPA-II government.
His remarks come days after the remaining CBSE and ICSE board examinations for classes 10 and 12, scheduled to be held in July, were cancelled due to the pandemic.
“Quite frankly even university exams should be postponed,”
Sibal said.
Till such time there is a pandemic, there should be no exams and holding online examinations will be “extremely discriminatory” because in a lot of places in India, in remote areas, there is no facility for online examinations and the poor will be discriminated against, he said.
Delhi University on Saturday postponed the online open book exams for final-year students, which were scheduled to begin from July 1, by 10 days “in view of the prevailing situation of Covid-19 pandemic”.
Several other educational institutions, including Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), have decided to conduct online open book exams.
Asked if examinations are not held how university students will be promoted, Sibal said that those going from first year to second year and those from second to third year must have appeared for semester exams during the period, so assessments can be made based on those results for them to be promoted to the next year and that should be provisional so that when full classes are held examinations can be conducted.