Academic realm remains an easy prey for populist politics and demand for exemption from examination amid fighting with the Corona crisis is no exception. Confrontation of a genuine health emergency, arising out of communist Chinas irresponsible infliction of COVID-19 Pandemic on humanity, presupposes preferences for an enlightened national interest to partisan gains. The entrenched vested interest, however, constantly tries to deprive the country of a cohesive approach for a successful way out of this global predicament, as demonstrated in questioning the national lockdown in the name of livelihood-issue, and now resisting the much needed examination process on the grounds of life exigency and concerns related to accessibility. At the centre of this mischief is the regressive nexus between status quoist public intellectual and power monger hungry opposition.

On 6th July 2020, the UGC advised all the institutions to hold examinations for terminal semester or final year by September-end. In an immediate response, four non-BJP ruled states West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Punjab have objected to the UGCs guidelines and expressed their inability to comply. AAP led Delhi government cancelled all state university upcoming exams including final years, and its Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia, further announced award of the degree on the evaluation parameters, decided by the universities and the institutions. Senior Congress leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi joined the chorus of protest and said that exams should be cancelled and students be promoted on the basis of their past performance. Echoing to the demand of the opposition, Sukh Deb Thorat, the then UGC Chairperson between 2006 and 2011, in a letter to the current UGC Chairperson, Dhirendra Pal Singh, on 9th July 2020, made a case for the cancelation of the exams, which in itself is self-explanatory on how far he can go devastatingly in terms of global damage to the genuinely benefitting axioms and educationally uplifting norms for the students of our country. In addition, the UGCs vide letter dated 6th July, 2020 on the guidelines on examination and academic calendar for the Universities in view of Covid-19 Pandemic has surprisingly been totally ignored by him and the like on the heavy cost of true forms of goodness and welfare for the students without making any sense of real concern and cognizance of the matter related to the entire student fraternity, and that too in terms of going to any extent in the matter of opposing Govt. policies and scheme in any way knowingly.

A look into the merit of this case for exam cancelation indicates more of a political motivation rather than any genuine pedagogic or public intent. Since there is durational uncertainty of the current Corona crisis, postponing examinations for indefinite period is not a viable option. When it comes to access issues, there is ample evidence of using online mode for carrying forward teaching and learning exercises in a significant scale. One may argue for augmenting scale and scope of digital provisioning, instead of doing away with the application of newer modes altogether.

Examination is a part of ethical responsibility of the university, and exams have the major roles to play in providing necessary qualities in life such as hard work, patience, creativeness to the students, enabling them to overcome their weaknesses in order to be successful in life. The absence of examination or promoting them without examination will have a negative impact on the students further prospects. Examination and evaluation are unavoidably necessary steps in the careers of all our students. It evaluates students skills, knowledge, attitudes and values in them. It is a way to measure knowledge, and also helps measure their attainment of learning alongside. This also promotes competitiveness among students and helps in developing students personality and confidence.

COVID-19 induced emergency should not allow academic ethics to be undermined in any way. Examinations are needed to uphold academic integrity. Since extraordinary situations need (extraordinary) flexibilities, UGC has offered lenient modes of examination in the absence of perfect solution. With the current pandemic shaking the fundamentals of our system, UGC has also tried to move ahead with the precautionary measures while ensuring equity, validity, transparency and fairness altogether. It has framed the revised guidelines for the terminal examinations in the universities, considering the larger interests of the students for their academic/career progression and job placement related issues. It has given the option for offline or online or a blended mode, keeping in mind the health, safety and security of the students. This will not only give them more confidence and satisfaction but also will ensure the merit and lifelong credibility with respect to wider global acceptability in time to come.

Evaluation is of utmost importance to save our students from the adverse impact of COVID-19 situation. The career readiness and proficiency along with the future competitive examinations will be adversely affected if evaluation and assessment is scrapped altogether. It is, therefore, necessary to proceed with the examination for the final year students, taking measures to ensure equality and fairness. As assessment is essential for further education and employment of students, the degree obtained without evaluation would lead students degree, devoid of credibility in the country as well as abroad. Passing out without an actual examination deprives the brighter students of showcasing their competencies, which may adversely affect their chances of better placement and admission in the premier institutions round the globe.

From a global perspective, not having exam would have a huge repercussion on the prospective students looking abroad for their further study. With many international universities asking for final semester grade sheet, last semester hour grade points, not having an exam would be detrimental to those students. Institutions like Australian National University have a method of ranking students from all over the world against each other, who apply for the same programme. With many countries opting for exams either online or take-home format, Indian students would be put to disadvantageous category.

Examinations have an important role in the process of learning, reflecting acquisition of certain amount of knowledge by students in some branches of study. A students success in an examination, therefore, helps employers and others assess his/her mental or general ability. Exam results are one of the most important criteria for university admissions and employment requirements for many companies. The interruption of exams was delaying decisions on students progression and their graduation degree, while affecting their access to labour markets, carrying individual and broader socio-economic impact. High stake exams are considered as an important outcome of the education system. It is difficult to do away with exams students depend upon them; parents believe in them; employer looks at the mark sheet, so does the wider global community. In the current fragile situation, UGCs emphasise on conducting examinations for the terminal years is crucial, for at the end of the day when they come back to the university or the employer, they have not lost so much.

Finding solution to the problem instead of retreating from it is need of the hour. Not having exams will have far reaching consequences, leading to the collapse of countrys teaching learning process. The future growth of Students community is the prime consideration behind making any choice from the various existing alternatives of teaching-training process and condution of examinations in todays changing environment. The UGC has taken a larger perspective of academic credibility, global acceptability, and future progression into consideration. Its examination guideline has given a way forward instead of getting away with the problem

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Exemption from examination: Academic commitment or populist politics? - The Times of India Blog