Universities should not conduct exams amid pandemic, online tests ‘discriminatory’: Kapil Sibal – education

Universities should not conduct examinations within the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and even holding online tests is not proper as it’s “discriminatory” in the direction of poor college students, former human useful resource growth minister Kapil Sibal stated on Sunday.

The senior Congress chief additionally stated that with nearly half the 2021-21 tutorial yr of colleges over with out correct lessons because of the COVID-19 unfold, board examinations for Class 10 should not be held subsequent yr as it could burden the scholars unnecessarily.

“What has occurred is that half the yr has been misplaced and we don’t know the way lengthy this pandemic will proceed. There isn’t any want for Class 10 board exams for some time for these two years — this yr and subsequent yr — after which they might relook at this coverage,” Sibal informed PTI in an interview.

Sibal, who because the HRD minister had spearheaded a reforms course of within the education sector beneath which it was determined to abolish obligatory CBSE Board exams for Class 10, stated it was a smart coverage to have been adopted however when the NDA got here to energy they reversed that.

“Thank god they’ve listened to some sane recommendation they usually have cancelled the board exams. Contemplate the affect it could have had, particularly on the poor college students who don’t have entry to any online services,” stated Sibal, who was the HRD Minister from Could 2009-October 2012 within the UPA-II authorities.

His remarks come days after the remaining CBSE and ICSE board examinations for lessons 10 and 12, scheduled to be held in July, had been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Fairly frankly even college exams should be postponed,” Sibal stated.

Until such time there’s a pandemic, there should be no exams and holding online examinations will probably be “extraordinarily discriminatory” as a result of in quite a lot of locations in India, in distant areas, there is no such thing as a facility for online examinations and the poor will probably be discriminated towards, he stated. “See you’re creating an elitist tradition the place the benefit goes to the wealthy which have entry to online services and to these establishments that are privileged to supply online services and online instructing,” Sibal stated. “Why should you maintain these exams within the midst of a pandemic. A lot of them (college students) have not acquired instructing supplies even the specifically-abled individuals have not been absolutely supplied instructing supplies,” he stated.

Delhi College on Saturday postponed the online open e-book exams for last-yr college students, which had been scheduled to start from July 1, by 10 days “in view of the prevailing state of affairs of COVID-19 pandemic”.

A number of different instructional establishments, together with Aligarh Muslim College (AMU), have determined to conduct online open e-book exams.

Requested if examinations are not held how college college students will probably be promoted, Sibal stated there have been two points — those that are to be promoted from the primary yr to the second yr in addition to from second yr to 3rd yr, and people within the third and last yr.

These going from first yr to second yr and people from second to 3rd yr will need to have appeared for semester exams in the course of the interval, so assessments may be made based mostly on these outcomes for them to be promoted to the subsequent yr and that should be provisional in order that when full lessons are held examinations may be carried out, Sibal stated. “However within the meantime, their promotional prospects should not be jeopardised. That takes care of 1st yr to second yr and second yr to third yr,” he stated.

“Now you come to the college exams. Many college students who come from far off locations will need to have gone away from the hostels, how will they participate in online exams from these locations. A lot of these college students are from neighbouring nations, how will they sit for these exams,” Sibal requested.

Noting that in some states, the colleges have stated they may not maintain exams, he urged that what may be performed is that last-yr college students may very well be given a provisional diploma based mostly on their previous efficiency they usually can sit for exams as and once they have the supplies and the tenure of the instructing class has been accomplished as would have occurred in an everyday yr.

“Some universities are doing that. I don’t know why that’s not being performed in Delhi,” he stated.

Requested if the Centre should introduce a uniform coverage for examinations in universities, Sibal stated the issue is that universities are impartial establishments and the federal government can’t determine what they should do or not. The schools have a stage of autonomy, however they themselves should discover progressive methods to take care of a state of affairs somewhat than have an “elitist method and say we now have determined, that is what will occur and we’re not going to see the state of affairs on the bottom”.

Thrusting these choices on poor college students may be very poor administration of education, he stated.

Universities and colleges throughout the nation have been closed since March 16 when the central authorities introduced a national classroom shutdown as one of many measures to include the COVID-19 outbreak.