Date Sheet Revoked By GGSIPU: Students Anxious About Safety

On June 2, the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University announced the date sheet for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The proposed date sheet informs about the examination to be conducted in June and July 2020. The examinations were to be held in two shifts i.e., morning and afternoon, with each exam having a time duration of 2 hours.

As per the initial plan, the university was conducting end term examination for  BA, B Tech, BBA, and LLB and other subjects and all exams in offline mode from June 22 to July 14. According to the revoked date sheet, the end term examination for Bachelor of Arts (BA), was to commence from June 22 and that for LLB (Bachelor of Law), from July 1, while that for BA LLB July 3.

As soon as the official website launched the date sheet, it gained momentum. The university faced criticism from various quarters for publishing and announcing the examination dates amid novel COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the statement given by the Ministry of Home Affairs, that, “A decision on the re-opening of these institutions will be taken in the month of July”, the tentative schedule for examination was released. A hustle was created in the minds of the students as well as their parents, regarding the safety. 

Some of the students also questioned the validity of the examination as the Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and the higher education regulator, University Grants Commission proposed that the university examination of final students can be conducted as soon as it becomes 'feasible' to do so.

Delhi has been recognised as the hotspot for novel COVID-19 pandemic the country. With more than a thousand cases being reported on a daily basis, examination, if conducted, will only jeopardise the safety of the students. The University Grants Commission in view of the scenarios suggested promoting the first and second-year students to the next class based on their previous semester performance. 

Chaos was created because of the tentative date sheet. The university released an official statement on June 2 itself, stating “The proposed draft tentative date sheet uploaded today for conduct of exams in June/July 2020 stands withdrawn immediately.” Addition to the statement, “The revised plan for examination schedule shall be uploaded in due course of time with a reasonable sufficient timeline.”