UGC latest news: Teachers appeal to DU to take a decision about open book exams

The HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank made an announcement on June 24th advising the University Grants Commission to reconsider the guidelines that they had earlier issued for intermediate and term-end semester exams. He also advised postponing the commencement of the new academic calendar as well. Read on to know about the current proceedings of HRD's request and the latest letter that the DU teacher association wrote to the UGC. 

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UGC latest news: DU teachers on OBE

In the UGC latest news, Delhi University teachers wrote a letter to the UGC. It asked the council to take a quick decision with respect to the University exams. In the letter, the DUTA stated clear indications of the unpreparedness of the Delhi University across this situation.

The letter mentioned that the DU is not prepared to conduct OBE exams in July 2020. The online OBE project seems to be a failure even before it has started as the date sheets of the mock exams had glaring errors in them. DU teachers also mentioned that many Common Service Centres which have been set to conduct the Open book exams aren't even functional at many locations. 

DU teachers stated that the DU administration has clearly chosen to ignore HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s request to revise the UGC guidelines for holding exams. The university has fixed their final semester exam dates much before the results of the UGC meeting were released. 

Image courtesy: DUTA official website

Image courtesy: DUTA official website

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Delhi University teachers write letter to UGC

In a letter written to the Delhi University, the DU teachers mentioned that the sudden announcement regarding the postponed net of OBE exams has created a wave of panic among students. Many students had already made travel plans with respect to the earlier dates of the exam. 

The teachers also mentioned that this mindless experimentation of Open Book Examination is affecting the mental and physical well being of students as well. DUTA (Delhi University teachers association) said that the DU is actually putting students' health in risk by conducting the OBE during the pandemic. This causes the students to forcibly go out and appear for the exams in the exam centres while the pandemic situation is not neutralizing any time soon. 

Currently, in the wake of the increasing Coronavirus cases in the country, the HRD ministry has now advised the UGC to extend the dates and revise their academic calendar for the 2020 session. 

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