Odisha Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo wrote a letter to Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal requesting him to not make it mandatory to conduct final term examinations of undergraduate/postgraduate (UG/PG) in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter explained, “I am again writing to you on this matter as we have got no response from the HRD Ministry regarding the request made by the State Government of Odisha. Students and parents have become very anxious and restless due to such uncertainty and are contacting us in large numbers over the telephone as to whether they should start preparing for the examinations or not.”
“The COVID-19 situation in the country has worsened in the last 15 days since I wrote to you on July 9. The situation is most likely to aggravate further in the coming months. For the reasons detailed below, it is neither possible nor advisable to conduct UG and PG final year/semester examinations in the State of Odisha as per the revised MHRD/UGC guidelines dated July 6,” he added.
Number of UG and PG final semester/year students in Odisha is about 2 lakh. The minister says that most students do not have the relevant technology such as laptop or mobile.