Exam postponement deplored

TIRUCHI

The decision of the Higher Education Department to conduct the odd semester exams after January 20, 2022, has apparently not gone down well with a large section of teachers and students in government-aided and self-financing colleges, that had started the offline classes early this academic year and had completed the portions.

For, they have missed well-deserved Christmas holidays extending up to New Year. This time around, colleges are required to function for a few days between Christmas and New Year much to the chagrin of teachers and students who complain of fatigue, according to a senior professor.

The State Government had, during November, announced that the offline exams will be conducted during January next year to quell protests by students demanding conduct of online exams for the odd semester.

But this announcement was not favourable to a majority of teachers and students. A short break would have served the purpose of rejuvenating the mind for better productivity in the even semester, teachers say.

As per the UGC guidelines, a semester has to encompass 15 to 18 weeks of academic work equivalent to 90 actual teaching days or 450 hours of teaching. This requirement has been complied with by government-aided and self-financing colleges

For those in government colleges, however, the postponement of the semester examinations has served the purposes of ensuring 90 working days in a semester.

According to teachers’ organisations, there have been instances of a few government-aided colleges going ahead with conducting the semester examinations.

Some colleges have even completed evaluation of the answer scripts but have withheld results until next month to technically fall in line with the government directive, a representative of a teachers’ organisation said.

The idea behind the conduct of the examinations was to make sure that there will be no compulsion for the teachers and students to go through the usual rigour during the days they used to enjoy as Christmas vacation.

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