‘Will Jeopardise Students’ Future’: States Against UGC Directive

Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and K Palaniswami wrote to the Centre against the new examination guidelines.

Mamata Banerjee (L), Arvind Kejriwal (C) and K Palaniswami (R).

(Photo: The Quint)

Chief Ministers of three states – West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi – wrote to the Centre on Saturday, 11 July, against the revised examination guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC), reported The Indian Express.

The UGC in its revised guidelines had asked the universities to complete the examinations by the end of September.

The report further added that while Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami wrote to Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, and requested the Centre to grant “freedom to states to work out their own assessment methods, without compromising on the quality and academic credibility.”

Sharing his letter on Twitter, Kejriwal said that, “For the sake of our youth, I urge Hon’ble PM to personally intervene and cancel final year exams of DU and other central govt universities and save the future.”

The Indian Express’ report stated that Mamata Banerjee in her letter to the PM claimed that after consulting vice-chancellors of varsities, West Bengal issued its own advisory on 27 June, which provides due weightage to internal assessment and performance of candidates in previous semesters in order to ensure transparency.

Similarly, Palaniswami in his letter to Pokhriyal wrote that a move to conduct examinations in the middle of the pandemic will jeopardise the future of students.

Chief ministers of three other states, namely, Punjab, Odisha and Maharashtra, have also objected to the new UGC guidelines.