Vice Chancellors of all Universities of J&K on Tuesday held meetings to discuss the issues faced by the students due to COVID19 pandemic.
A statement said the meeting, third of the series was held at University of Kashmir KU), under the Chairmanship of Prof Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of the University.
The meeting was attended by Prof Me’raj ud Din Mir, VC CU; Prof Mushtaq A Siddiqi, VC, IUST; Prof Rakesh Sehgal, Director, NIT and Prof Sheikh Javaid Ahmed, VC, Cluster University Srinagar.
The heads of the institutions from Jammu, Prof Manoj Dhar, VC JU; Prof Ashok Aima, VC, Central University of Jammu; Prof Javed Musarrat, VC, BGSBU; Prof Ravindra Kumar Sinha, VC, SMVDU and Prof Anju Bhasin, VC, Cluster University Jammu attended the meeting through video conference.
The VCs deliberated upon the difficulties and challenges faced by the students at present which among others include mental health issues created by the lockdown, non availability of proper and effective internet services, mandatory requirement of social/physical distancing, non-availability of public transport and deteriorating financial and economic situation of their families.
The VCs discussed in detail various means and methods of evaluating the students under the given circumstances and arrived at the conclusion that a student-friendly mechanism shall be devised to meet the expectations of the students to help them overcome the current crises.
The statement said the VCs unanimously believed that mass promotion of the students was not a good solution in view of the fact that students will face problems in future prospects and credibility of their certificates will be questionable.
The VCs recommended that the students shall be evaluated in light of the recent UGC guidelines and the modalities for assessment should be worked out by the universities which may include online assignments, case studies, project works, group discussions, viva voce and tests.
“The evaluation of students may be done by the teachers under the supervision of the departmental committees, principal of the Colleges in consultation with their faculty,” said the statement.