Final Year Exams For Non-Professional Courses In Maharashtra To Be Optional

The Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Department has announced that all final year exams for non-professional traditional courses across 14 public universities will be made optional.

If a student wishes to appear for the exam, they have to give written consent. Close to 7.3 lakh students are enrolled in the final year of non-professional courses.

Also for non-professional courses, students who wish to opt for the average of grades from their previous semesters, will have to give a written declaration accepting the conditions. 

For the 2.8 lakh students enrolled in professional courses such as Law, MBA, Hotel Management, Engineering, etc, the state will seek the guidelines from the central councils governing these courses, including BCI, Council of Architecture, AICTE, etc

Higher Education Minister, Uday Samant said, " The state will inform the Central Councils that they are not in the position to hold exams due to COVID-19 crisis."

The Government Resolution announced by Samant states that holding an exam involves activities like preparation of question papers, transportation of answer sheets, supervision, etc and in case anyone is exposed to COVID-19, there are possibilities of transmission.

The GR clearly mentions that " It is not feasible to conduct exams at this point. Also, it is important to start a new academic session and not to hold back students' careers by delaying the decision on exams."

Education Minister Samant also said," The decision on the backlog of final year students will be taken in the next 2-3 days after a meeting with the Vice- Chancellors."