Academic year

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has done well by issuing instruction to the colleges across the country to complete the process of admitting first-year undergraduate and postgraduate students latest by September 30 so that classes for the already delayed academic year for 2021-22 could be started from October 1. The UGC has also directed the colleges to strictly adhere to the Covid protocols and complete the process with due urgency so that lakhs of students across the country do not have to lose a valuable academic year. The academic year of 2020-21 has been already severely affected due to the Covid-induced situation, and it is time that institutions as well as the community as a whole brace up by following the Covid protocols in letter and spirit in the greater interest of the young generation. The UGC has also said that higher education institutions shall ensure that the admission process for undergraduate courses/programmes for the academic session 2021-2022 commences only after the declaration of results by the CBSE, ICSE and the various state boards. It is expected that all the school boards will declare their results for the class/grade-12 examinations by July 31, the UGC notification clearly said. In Assam, the authorities had miserably failed in holding the Class X and Class XII board final examinations before the state assembly election process had begun. It was common knowledge that the state assembly election was due for April and that the election process would start rolling by the middle of March. Given this fact, there was no reason why the SEBA and the Assam Higher Secondary Council failed to hold the examinations before say March 15. What must be kept on record for posterity is that the Board and Council officials concerned were grossly responsible for pushing lakhs of students into a state of suspense and uncertainty for no fault of theirs. Now that the UGC has issued the instructions, it is heartening to note that the government of Assam has asked the Vice-Chancellors and Principals to set into motion the already delayed new academic year. The government can probably also ask the authorities to cut down the number of holidays and vacations, and also increase the number of classes every day so that the students can make up for the valuable time already lost.