Universities defer exams, new decision to follow

Srinagar: Amid the resurgence in the COVID-19, the Universities have deferred all the examinations and are mulling to chalk-out new strategies in near future. The offline examinations of the students have been deferred in view of the surge in the COVID-19 cases reported in J&K on a daily basis.

As per the new government guidelines issued on January 9 this year, all schools, colleges, polytechnics, coaching centers and ITIs etc were ordered to adopt the online mode of offering education till further orders.

The guidelines were issued by the State Executive Committee of the Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

The Cluster University Saturday deferred the offline examinations in view of the spike in COVID cases fuelled by the new virus variant Omicron. A notice issued to this effect by Controller Examinations at CUS said that the revised schedule for the exams, which were scheduled from Monday, January 17 shall be notified separately.

The concerned students have been advised to remain in touch with the university official website www.cusrinagar.edu.in for further details. The varsity’s move comes on the heels of a news report published in this paper in its Saturday’s issue over the ambiguity of the offline exam scheduled by the CUS amid a spike in COVID cases triggered by the Omicron variant.

“Date sheet for other exams was finalized as well. But now we will not hold any exams in offline mode till new decisions are taken by the University,” controller examination CUS, Prof Khurshid Ahmad Mir told Greater Kashmir.

Registrar Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) Awantipora Prof Naseer Iqbal said the varsity has not taken any call about the upcoming examination of the University.

“Some employees of the varsity have tested COVID19 positive. The Vice-Chancellor will take a call on Monday which will be communicated accordingly,” he told Greater Kashmir.

Controller Examination Kashmir University (KU) Prof Irshad Ahmad Nawchoo said no Undergraduate (UG) examinations were scheduled by the University.

“We don’t have any UG exams scheduled as of now. The University has also deferred examination of the Law department while MBBS 2nd year professional examination has been put on hold as well,” he said.

About the University Post-Graduate (PG) level examinations lined up by some departments, he said the decision will be announced on Monday. “PG exams are conducted by the concerned department. But the majority of them have already deferred the exams and others will take a call on Monday,” he said. Notably, around 15 employees tested COVID19 positive in KU following which the University authorities closed the administration blocks on Friday.

“Saturday and Sunday were holidays in the University so the new decision for resuming work in administration blocks will be taken on Monday,” a University official said.

The controller examination Central University of Kashmir (CUK) Prof Farooq Ahmad Mir said no exams were scheduled till mid-January as per the academic calendar of the University.

“We had planned to start the exams from February end. But the decision will be taken accordingly as per the situation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) Rajouri has also postponed all its offline examinations till further orders while the classwork will be held through online mode.

“The offline examinations are postponed but the staff will daily attend the University to deliver online classes,” Vice Chancellor BGSBU, Prof Akbar Masood told Greater Kashmir.

“The staff members have their separate rooms to deliver online classes. We will monitor the situation and take further decisions accordingly,” he said.

As already reported by this newspaper, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Science and Technology (SKUAST)-Kashmir and Jammu University have already deferred their offline exams due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in J&K.