Yuva Sena chief and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray, on Friday, joined the campaign against University Grant Commission's (UGC) revised guidelines on conducting final-year examinations in September. Terming the UGC and Ministry of Human Resources' decision ‘absolutely absurd and probably from an alternate universe,’ Aaditya urged UGC to not make this a silly issue of ego and realise that the lives of students, teachers and non-teaching staff are at stake.
''Unless the HRD Ministry and UGC take responsibility for the health of each student appearing for the examinations, one wonders, what is guaranteed apart from just that the ministry and UGC don't realise the growing number of cases in India,'' he said in his tweet. Aaditya's move comes days after Yuva Sena had launched a signature campaign in favour of the cancellation of examinations. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Minister of Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant said the government is firm on its decision to cancel final-year examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aaditya further said, ''Mental stress, incomplete syllabus and highest risk to students and teachers, but then top universities of the world skip examinations. HRD Ministry and UGC enforce examinations on students. No where in the world is academic excellence dependent on one exam, other than our HRD and UGC.'' He led a scathing attack against the HRD Ministry and UGC, saying that it seems that while the entire country, central government, state governments, urban local bodies and panchayats are trying to manage the pandemic, reduce new cases and save lines, the former wants to just do the opposite.
Aaditya strongly defended the Maharashtra government's formula, which he said is based on being fair and just. ''Students to be passed on the aggregate of their past performance in past semesters. Those still feeling that they must do more can always appear for examinations by their own choice when they can be held,'' he tweeted.
