#ExamsInCovidASuicide: Students urge UGC to scrap exams

The majority of Indian universities have planned their final-year exam schedules in accordance with the UGC (University Grants Commission) deadline of September 30, with 755 out of 945 universities responding to the UGC's declaration. Concurrently, students pursuing higher education opposing the UGC's declaration have taken it to social media launching the campaign #ExamsInCovidASuicide in a bid to urge UGC to cancel the exams due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students across the country are baffled and perplexed with such a decision amid the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus and have demanded the cancellation of the exams in view of the safety and health of students as the COVID-19 cases continue to escalate across the country.  A news report by NDTV states through the hashtag "#ExamsInCovidASuicide", 1,20,000 impressions have been recorded on the micro-blogging site Twitter so far.

The UGC on Sunday stated out of 945 universities (as per the list maintained by UGC till June 1, 2020), the responses were obtained from 755 Universities (120 Deemed Universities, 274 Private Universities, 40 Central Universities, and 321 State Universities) and information from remaining universities is yet to be gathered and furnished.

"Out of the 755 universities, 560 have either conducted the examination or are planning to conduct. Among these 560 varsities, 194 have already conducted the examination and 366 are planning to conduct the examination in an online, offline, blended mode in August and September," adding, "27 Private Universities were established during 2019-20 and their first batch is yet to become eligible for the final examination," UGC, said in an official release.

The UGC had recently announced the semester exams need to be conducted by September 30, 2020. The universities were required to chalk out a plan for completion of final year examinations in offline (pen and paper); online or blended (online and offline) mode following the guidelines related to COVID19 pandemic.