Students from vocational and non-vocational courses appearing for offline exams will get additional time to complete their exams. Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant after meeting with the Vice-Chancellors on Wednesday announced that students from vocational and non-vocational courses will get 15 minutes extra time after every hour for offline examinations.
Samant’s announcement came hours after the Aaditya Thackeray led Yuva Sena had urged the higher and technical education minister Uday Samant to increase the timings for the offline exams of vocational and non-vocational courses in Maharashtra. This is needed as students due to corona were appearing for online exams held on an MCQ basis and they will need extra time as they have lost the practice of writing lengthy answers.
Yuva Sena secretary Varun Sardesai and executive member Sainath Durge in a letter said that the higher and technical education has taken a decision to hold offline exams for vocational and non-vocational courses in the state as during the coronavirus pandemic the exams were conducted online in 2020 and 2021. The students had appeared for online exams which were conducted on multiple-choice questions (MCQ) as they had lost writing practice.
‘’You are requested to extend the time by half an hour or one hour or more for exams so that the students can complete the paper and they will not lose their academic year,’’ said Sardesai and Durge.
Yuva Sena’s demand came days after the School Education Department had extended the exam timings by half an hour for the students who appeared for the 10th and 12th board exams which were recently concluded. The School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had defended the decision saying that the students who were used to online learning and exams needed more time as they had lost writing practice.
