The Odisha government’s Higher Education Department has cancelled the pending final year examinations for all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, barring medical education, offered in universities across the state. The decision to cancel examinations extends to both theory papers as well as practical sessions.
A consensus to cancel the examinations arrived at the meeting chaired by Education Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo, which was attended by the Vice Chancellors for state-run universities and principals of autonomous colleges that come under the department’s directives. However, the order will not apply to those universities or institutions that have already conducted both the theory and practical exams for their end-semester students.
Government sources said that universities and autonomous colleges would abide by the UGC guidelines to conduct ‘alternative evaluation’ for affected candidates, the results for which would be published by August. This scheme of marking would involve weightage to internal assessments and marks obtained in earlier semesters. In case a student feels that they can perform better, provision for an offline examination will also be accorded. However, in that case, the results from the offline examination will be considered final.
Earlier, the administration had announced that the end-semester examinations for the terminal year UG students would be held between June 20 and July 24, whilst that of the PG counterparts would be conducted latest by August 20.