RTMNU postpones all exams till April 30

Principal Correspondent :

Sources say, examinations likely to be postponed after April 30 too

After Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister of Maharashtra announced the extension of lockdown period to April 30, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) has also postponed all its examinations till April 30. Considering the overall situation and uncertainty, it is likely that, university may consider to postpone examinations further.

RTMNU had earlier postponed examinations till March 31, then till March 28, it declared the postponement of examinations to be conducted between April 1 and April 14. Now the examinations beginning on April 15 and ending on April 30 have been postponed. The third phase of the examinations would end on June 25. Most of the students and colleges too were pressing to postpone the examination. Earlier with the lockdown announced by Maharashtra Government, University too had postponed its examinations to be conducted in the second phase. There was a demand from the colleges of postponing the examinations. The first phase of examinations began on February 27 that was to continue till April 29. Second phase began on March 19 and was scheduled to conclude on April 27.

University has also extended the period of ‘Work from Home’ for teaching and non-teaching staff to April 30. The authority had already asked its teachers of all the colleges, departments and conducted colleges to work from home. Students whose classes are not conducted have been advised not to roam unnecessarily. They will get themselves isolated wherever they stay. There are several reasons for postponing the examination. 1. Issue of transportation. Though university has started sending question papers on-line, all examinations have not covered under it, so some papers are to be transported.

While transporting the violation of social distancing is likely to be broken which would not be tolerated and nobody has alternative to it. Secondly, the social distancing is to be maintained. While writing examinations, students may not be able to do that. Third and important point is, as per the instructions of university, students staying in hostels have vacated the rooms. Government had issued notification through which it acquired the rooms for keeping COVID 19 suspects. Obviously problems of students’ stay may arise for which neither university nor the administration has any solution. In case all the above problems are resolved and students are asked to write the papers where would they stay? The recently conducted video-conferencing of all vice-chancellors with Chancellor did not yield any outcome. University has not taken any final decision on it, but according to highly placed sources in Mumbai, universities have to postpone examinations till mid-May or even beyond that.