Exam credibility: Ignou sticks to offline test, regular pass marks

NAGPUR: Though open universities have often been viewed as ‘inferior’ to their traditional counterparts, the recent exams being conducted by varsities may very well change the point of view. Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) not only conducted its final year/semester exams in offline mode as usual, but it also did not compromise on the evaluation benchmarks.
Around 3.6 lakh students were issued admit cards for Ignou exams, which started in September and will end this week.Attendance too has almost been the same as in the previous years, about 50%.
Unlike other varsities, the passing marks were not altered and no waiver was given for project work or written assignment submissions. By conducting exams this time as per traditional format, the ‘credibility of exam’ stance adopted by Ignou vice-chancellor Nageshwar Rao seems to have paid off.
While he refused to compare decisions in the backdrop of those taken by other universities, Rao gave an insight into his thought process. “No one will question the credibility of the degree granted by conducting exams as per established practice. We conducted written exams even for certificate and diploma courses. Students also understood that this was for their future. In Punjab, we had 97% attendance for certificate course in child care exam,” said Rao.
Ignou also had some unexpected challenges along the way. Rao said, “The postal department said it was not in a position to deliver the question papers. So, we airlifted the papers and our regional directors then took over.” All hired exam centres were paid extra this year due to Covid-19. “We also increased the number of centres and students did not have to bear any extra cost for this,” said Rao.
Another initiative this year is that exam results for those having just one or two papers are being released within days. As for others, this time the wait won’t be for the normal 45 days either.
According to regional director P Sivaswaroop, almost 1,900 students are registered for the exams in Nagpur. “Exams have gone off without any problem since last month and by following all Covid-19 guidelines,” said Sivaswaroop.