Coronavirus scare in Bihar: Magadh University’s sessions delay to affect 3 lakh pupils

GAYA: With all academic activities in the state, including exams, suspended till March 31 and the likelihood of restrictions being extended further, Covid-19 has apparently derailed the session regularization efforts of Magadh University VC Prof Rajendra Prasad.
Soon after joining as VC in September 2019, Prof Prasad expressed his determination to clear the exam backlog by June this year and regularize the session thereafter.But now session regularization by the earlier deadline is highly unlikely, say university officials.
As of now, degree part-I exam of 2018-19 session is yet to begin. Ideally, by now the process for degree part-I exam of the session 2019-20 should have begun. Not only that, the first semester exam of postgraduate session 2018-20 is yet to begin.
Third semester exam of the PG session 2017-19 and first semester exam of the session 2018-2020 are long overdue. Besides MU students, the PG 2017-19 exam also includes the examinees of Patliputra University (PPU), whose colleges were part of the parent MU before it was separated in March 2018. Though exact figures are not available, the number of students affected by delayed sessions is estimated to be about three lakhs.
Conceding that the Covid-19 has greatly impacted the university’s exam calendar, MU VC said this was not a university specific problem as it has affected the functioning of other universities as well. “It is an unforeseen development and as such little can be done about it. We can only hope for early normalization,” said the VC.
“Once the situation improves and academic activities are restored, I will try to minimize the exam-result publication gap by introducing some innovative measures,” he added.
On the issue of introduction of new courses like PG diploma in Defence Studies and Chinese language study programmes, the VC said the Covid-19 is unlikely to delay the introduction of new courses.