The petition says the “sudden decision by the UGC is bound to cause mental agony to lakhs of terminal sem/year students.
A petition started by Rahul Kapoor, a social activist from Delhi and Ph.D. Scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia, against University Grants Commission’s revised guidelines that have recommended universities to conduct online/offline/blended mode of examination for terminal sem/year students by the end of September 2020, is gaining momentum online. 185,798 people have signed this petition named “Scrap Final Semester/Year Exams for Students of all Universities in India”.
The petition says the “sudden decision by the UGC is bound to cause mental agony to lakhs of terminal sem/year students especially when many states like Maharashtra and Punjab have already decided to scrap their exams and mark them based on internal assessment.”
It also stresses that the UGC’s decision is uncalled for and should be rolled back at the earliest. The petition also demands UGC to issue a fresh set of guidelines recommending the universities to evaluate all terminal sem/year students based on their internal assessment assignments by the end of July.
Talking to HW News, Rahul Kapoor, who started this petition, said: “As soon as the UGC came out with the new guidelines asking universities to conduct exams for final year students, I started receiving calls from students of JNU, Jamia, DU and many other universities all of whom were driven by fear and panic because of the new guidelines.”
He said he started this petition on 7th July demanding the MHRD and UGC to cancel the exams of final year students and evaluate them based on their internal assessment assignments.
“Within a matter of two days more than 1 lakh 85 thousand students, parents, and teachers have signed the petition and have also voiced out their concerns through their comments which we have received on the petition. Moreover, the petition is receiving thousands of signs with every passing minute,” Kapoor added.
Stressing that it is a duty of UGC and MHRD to hear these voices and cancel the exams of all final year students, Kapoor expressed his concerns adding, “The coronavirus cases are increasing in India with every passing day and to force the students to give exams at such a time seriously undermines the well being of their physical and mental health. It is clear that the students are also trending hashtags like #StudentsLivesMatters and #CancelAllExams on social media platforms to make their voices heard.”
“I urge the MHRD and the UGC to reconsider the new guidelines and respect the voices of lakhs of students, teachers and parents,” he further added.
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