Bihar Governor-cum-Chancellor of universities Phagu Chouhan Tuesday directed the universities to work out a reorganize academic and exam calendars in such a way in the wake of disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic that sessions were least affected and exams were also conducted following social distancing norms.
On the first day, he interacted with vice chancellors of four universities – LN Mithila University (Darbhanga), KSD Darbhanga University, Purnea University and BN Mandal University (Madhepura)– through video conferencing as part of the exercise to hold meetings with all the universities. The exercise will continue till June 15.
Incidentally, three of the universities are under one VC. Purnea Univerity VC Rajesh Singh holds the additional charge of LNMU as well as KSDSU, while BN Mandal University is also under an acting VC due to delay in the appointment of VCs across the state.
However, the meeting was disrupted after barely half an hour as there was fire in the Raj Bhawan due to short circuit. The fire was, however, immediately controlled and there was not much damage.
Chouhan said that universities should work out a plan in accordance with the guidelines from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the government after discussions in their respective academic councils. “The conduct of exams and publication of results should happen within a definite time frame so that next session could get underway without any hassles. The admission process for graduation and post-graduation should also be completed timely through online process,” he added.
The Chancellor also directed the universities to show alacrity for accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and encourage colleges for the same. “The universities should also send the roster-wise details of vacancies to the education department,” he added.
The universities in Bihar have always been struggling with delayed academic sessions. Though the new academic sessions should ideally begin from July 1, none of the universities has so far initiated the process for exams, while online classes have been mostly patchy due demographic profile of students. Most of the students live in rural areas where internet connective is far from satisfactory and facilities limited.
“Forget about video lecture, even downloading a small video on Whatsapp requires a lot of efforts,” said s student living in Singhia block of Samastipur, adding that he would, however, still like the exams to be conducted timely.
