Covid-19: JNU panel for online exams, classes, summer vacation cancellation

The committees have recommended that the evaluation process should be completed as per the academic calendar in a bid to ensure that the next semester starts on time.

Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) two academic committees tasked with giving suggestions to ensure uninterrupted learning activities for the rest of winter semester amid the ongoing lockdown, which have been extended till May 3 to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, has made several recommendations such as conducting online examinations and applying virtual learning methods and cancelling the summer vacation this year.

The report said that JNU is likely to remain closed during the rest of the winter semester and all efforts have to be made to conduct online examinations (PTI)

In a report, shared with the deans of all the schools and centres in the varsity last week, Chintamani Mahapatra rector, (pro-vice-chancellor), JNU, cited all the recommendations submitted by the two panels, which were formed on April 9, to ensure completion of the courses and conducting of examinations despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report said that JNU is likely to remain closed during the rest of the winter semester and all efforts have to be made to conduct online examinations. It, however, said that the students, who will not be able to appear for online examinations due to lack of internet connectivity, will be allowed to take them after the lockdown restrictions are lifted.

“Students, who will be unable to appear for examinations due to lack of internet connectivity, will be allowed to submit their assignments with a grace period. Those, who don’t have internet connectivity during the lockdown period, will be permitted to appear after the restrictions are lifted. The examination pattern for the winter semester will be online and a uniform one for all the students,” the report said.

The panels have suggested online classes to ensure uninterrupted learning amid the lockdown. “Classes should be conducted via Zoom or other online platforms mutually convenient to a teacher and students,” the report said. It has also recommended all the schools and centres to make term papers, projects, seminar papers and book reviews available online for the students.

The committees have also recommended that the dates of submission of thesis for M. Phil students and Ph.D. scholars be extended in light of the prevailing lockdown.

Also, the report suggested that summer vacation for this year be cancelled and conduct oral interviews for students, who qualify for JNU entrance examinations for the next academic session, via video-conferencing facility.

The JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) joined the issue with the panels’ recommendations and described them as academically and practically not feasible. The teachers’ body said that JNU authorities have to adhere to the due process of approval from all the statutory bodies before implementing any of these suggestions.

“Even if the due process is followed, however, the report cannot be the basis for the deliberations in the different institutional bodies that are part of that process. It, in fact, doesn’t offer an academically and practically viable option at all. Options, other than what it suggests, have to be considered. No matter what the compulsions, teachers cannot accept a purely formal completion of the semester that reduces it to a farce. Teachers also stand ready to make the extra effort needed to ensure proper completion of the academic requirements prescribed,” the JNUTA said in a statement.

No immediate comment was available from either Mahapatra or JNU registrar Pramod Kumar.