IGNOU Exam 2020: Students will have to appear for the exam, says varsity notification

The Indira Gandhi National Open University has ruled out the option of cancelling exams for its students amidst COVID-19. On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, the university released a varsity notification. As per the new varsity notification, all final year and semester students will have to appear for written exam in September 2020 while all other students will have to appear in December 2020. Some students of IGNOU have taken to Twitter to express their discontent regarding the IGNOU Exam 2020 notification issued by the university. Read on to know more about the same.

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IGNOU Exam News: Updates on IGNOU Exam 2020

According to the reports of a news portal, the varsity’s academic council members held a meeting on Tuesday, July 21. The council reached on a decision that students will have to write the written examination regardless of the year or semester they are currently studying in. News reports also confirmed that at the moment lakhs of students are enrolled in IGNOU. Many students were hoping to get promoted to the next year or semester following the cancellation of examination due to COVID-19. According to the reports of a media portal, which were published last week, it was suggested that IGNOU is unlikely to scrap their examinations in spite of COVID-19 due to some “technical” issues.

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In an interview given to a news portal, a high ranking official of IGNOU revealed that the “technical” issue cited by IGNOU was related to the varsity’s current status as a distance learning institute. The IGNOU official went on to explain that, the institution needs to ensure that their degrees have credibility. Many students who study in IGNOU are pursuing their degrees on the side, while also working a full-time job.

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The Varsity provides a lot of flexibility to its students. The official mentioned in that at times a three years degree is extended up to six years. Hence, given that students already have such flexibility, scrapping exams on top of that will compromise the quality of the education the institute seeks to provide.

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OU Exam News: Updates on IGNOU Exam 2020

According to the reports of a media portal, the same official also cited the bi-annual admission cycle as one of the reasons of the council’s decision. IGNOU admissions are open in January and in July as well, while the IGNOU examinations are held in December and June respectively. Hence, technically speaking only students who were to appear for the June Examination must get the waiver as that is when the lockdown was in place. But, there is a possibility that students who should have appeared for the January exam, chose instead to appear in June and are now demanding a waiver. In the interview given to the news portal, the official claimed that the varsity cannot give a waiver to a lot of students.