Pondicherry University Rebuts The Claims of DMK Raised Against The Exam Cancellation Issue
The Pondicherry University has rebutted the claims of the opposition leader and DMK convenor R. Shiva, who alleged that the university’s semester examination for language papers of first-year students was cancelled due to the issue of the wrong question paper.
Mr. Siva, the opposition leader of Pondicherry, accused the university of not conducting the semester examinations according to the academic calendar and claimed that students studying in affiliated colleges are suffering due to the administrative failure of the varsity.
As these claims of the opposition leader made headlines, the university has now denied the claims, saying that the university has been administering the NEP guidelines for all UG courses and informed that the exams for Tamil-I/Hindi-I/French-I, were rescheduled and conducted on February 17.
The statement from the university explains that the university has implemented the NEP 2020 Regulations from 2023-24 onwards for all affiliated colleges and the university departments. As per NEP regulations 2020, the Languages/MIL courses were offered in the 2nd and 4th Semesters only to all U.G. (Hons) (NEP) Programs along with Major, Minor, Value Added courses and Multidisciplinary courses and it was added that the exams were conducted smoothly in the 2nd semester for the year 2023-24.
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It further explains, “But, based on the request of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Puducherry for providing flexibility as per manpower and resources availability of the colleges, the university permitted all affiliated colleges to choose/select the English/languages (MIL) in all four semesters (1st to 4th semester) for all U.G. (Hons) (NEP) programs.”
On explaining the question paper setting process, the university wrote, “Based on the flexibility provided in the subjects (MIL) within the 4 semesters, the colleges will communicate the subjects chosen / selected by them alternatively during the semester to the examination wing prior to the start of the semesters. Accordingly, the question paper settings will be set by the Examination Wing, systematically. Due to the non-availability of the language subjects chosen by the affiliated colleges, the examination wing could not find out/identify the correct language question paper.”
It also adds, “The NEP Implementation Committee of the University is in progress of governing the implementation of the NEP Regulations of the University and resolving the issues and difficulties faced from time to time for the University Departments and all affiliated colleges.”
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Notably, Mr. Siva also claimed that the introduction of education policy was another attempt by the BJP to take away the rights of state governments. He further announced that the party would organize a major protest in Puducherry against the UGC draft regulations.
Along with these allegations, the opposition leader also requested the government, saying, “The Puducherry government should immediately take up with the central government the poor state of administrative affairs in the institution.”
He claimed that Pondicherry University has been functioning without a vice chancellor and further added that the center and the Puducherry government were not concerned about the issue.
However, the university completely denied the allegation, saying, “The information published in the newspapers as “poor state of administrative affairs in the university” and “the semester examinations are not being conducted properly as per the academic calendar of the university” is completely denied by the university, and the university is properly administering the NEP Guidelines for all U.G. (Hons) (NEP) courses in the new system.”
