Maharashtra Makes Final Year Exams Optional, Decision On Professional Courses Soon

Due to the prevalent coronavirus situation in the state, the Maharashtra government has made final year degree examinations optional for all students except for those who are in professional courses

  New Delhi: 

Due to the prevalent coronavirus situation in the state, the Maharashtra government has made final year university examinations optional for all students except for those who are in professional courses. Regarding the final year students in the professional courses including MBA and LLB, Higher education minister Uday Samant said the state is currently is in consultation with regulatory bodies like AICTE, Bar Council of India and Council of Architecture to reach a decision.

According to an official statement, Mr Samant said the examinations of students who have cleared previous semesters but have opted for tests will be held keeping in mind the spread of COVID-19 locally.

Students who have cleared all previous semesters but do not wish to appear for the final one will be passed based on their respective aggregate marks, the statement said.

The minister has also said that those candidates who wish to appear for the exams will have to inform their respective institutions in writing.

"Yesterday, the meeting of state disaster management authority was held by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The decision to cancel final year/semester university examinations was taken in the meeting in view of the health of the students given the increasing COVID-19 spread," he said, as per the statement.

Mr Samant said the decision to make the examination optional has been taken to end uncertainty in the minds of students and parents with regard to university examinations whose schedule was affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Similar decision was taken with regard to examinations of professional courses (engineering, pharmacy, hotel management, architecture, etc) during the authority's meeting and requests will be made to the respective apex bodies of these courses for approval.

The decision on backlog and ATKT examinations will be taken within four days after discussing with all the vice chancellors under the leadership of Thackeray, Mr Samant said.

In June first week, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had granted permission to conduct all under-graduate and post-graduate examinations of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS)as proposed by the Nashik-based health sciences university.

Mr Koshyari, who is also Chancellor of state universities, gave his approval for the examinations after Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh met him at Raj Bhavan.