With the growing nuisance caused by the novel coronavirus, institutions are coming with different methods to continue their terms without compromising the safety. The whole education system is in turmoil because of this pandemic. And students are unable to decide for themselves the next steps.

This caused widespread confusion since it can lead to a waste of a complete academic session. Different institutes are coming with different suggestions and ways to handle this. Some institutes have already switched to online classes while others are on their way to do so.

While the problem with existing students in not that hard to tackle and can be arranged by the universities themselves. The enrolling of the new batch and conducting exams for them is what causes the main problem.

Since all the competitive exams are cancelled, and universities are unable to enrol new students for the first year. Yet some of the steps are taken by the government for smooth execution. For example, UGC recently released a timetable for universities.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a tentative schedule for the new academic year 2020-21 for all the educational institutions affiliated with it. But the management and authority at Nagpur University is not pleased with this schedule and have several objections.

As per the recommendations made by UGC, the academic year for the students of 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th-year courses should start between 1^st August to 31^st August 2020. While the recommendations for starting classes for first year students are from 1^st September 2020. But the officials from Nagpur University have raised their objections.

They said that it might be possible for universities in Pune, Mumbai, and other cities to start their classes from 1^st August 2020 as they only have to conduct the exams for final year students. But Nagpur University has to conduct exams for almost five lakh students every summer.

As this is a big number, it will require a lot of doing to implement the social distancing norms specified by the government. As a result, the number of examination centres will have to be increased to 600 from the previous level of 200, making the task even more difficult.

The university ahs to conduct exams for all years, the total number increases to over 9,500. Thus, it will be difficult for them to complete the exams by August if they are started in July as per the timetable.

Now, Mr Ambadas Mohite, who is a former senate member, has come up with a new suggestion. He has suggested to the chancellor of the Nagpur University and the state education minister to conducts the exams with objective type questions so that the evaluation process will be quicker and would require lesser manpower.

Also, the universities would save precious time, and funds which are quite necessary during the ongoing pandemic. Another suggestion from a former employee of Nagpur University, Prashant Mohite, reads that the university should grant average marks based on the performance of the students in previous semesters if they wish to start the academic years as per the suggested timetable.

And further, if the students want to improve their marks, they can apply again, this will cause only sincere students to get involved and would be less difficult to carry out.

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Source: Times Of India