Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government has cancelled all intermediate exams of University and College in view of the increasing COVID-19 cases in the State. Graduation, post-graduation exams will be conducted only for final semester students. All intermediate semester students except medical students will be promoted.

All intermediate semester students pursuing a degree (BA, B.Sc., B.Com., etc.), post-graduation courses (MA, M.Sc.) including engineering and diploma will be promoted without exams. However, no relief will be extended to final sem students. 

Examinations for the final year students would be conducted before the end of September 2020, as per University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. The Governor of Karnataka has also approved the decision. The State that decided not to cancel SSLC and II PUC exams 2020, cancelled exams for the intermediate University students.

Pass and promote 

Deputy Chief Minister Dr. C.N. Ashwath Narayan said, “COVID-19 has disrupted the education system – classes could not be held on time. Online learning introduced during the lockdown has received good responses and the Government promptly tried its best to reach the last person in the chain. Amid these, the Government mulled on conducting offline classes and exams too, but owing to an increase in the viral spread those thoughts have been dropped and it has been decided to pass and promote all intermediate semester students. Universities have been intimated to conduct examinations for all the final year/semester students.”

Comprehensive evaluation 

He added, “Intermediate semester students will be assessed based on a comprehensive evaluation scheme with internal assessment marks and previous year’s / semester’s marks considered in a 50:50     ratio. For students in their first semester/year, the evaluation will be completely based on                    internal assessment marks. If students feel to better their scores, provisions will be made for them to face examinations during the next semester and students who fail to succeed in the comprehensive evaluation process shall face examinations for respective subjects during the next semester. Backlog subjects will be allowed to carry over as well.”

Company assessment

Talking about the rationale behind conducting exams for the final semester, Dy.CM said, “Final semester exams will be conducted with due consideration given to students’ academic evaluation and their future lives. Academic evaluation forms the core of the higher education system and hence the academic performance of students needs to be considered. Companies too will base their assessments on an individual student’s academic excellence and grades he/she secured. Thus, it would be pushing the students to danger in the future if examinations were not to be conducted now. In this regard, all Universities have been informed to make suitable arrangements for the conduct of final examinations.”

The Government also decided to conduct online classes for the academic year 2020-21 from Sept. 1, 2020, and offline classes from Oct. 1, 2020.