UGC holds all exams till March 31

Hyderabad: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all the universities and their affiliated colleges in the country to differ the ongoing examinations and evaluations till March 31 in the wake of a fresh COVID-19 advisory by the Union HRD Ministry.

Education institutions are asked to communicate with the students and teachers via electronic means and keep them fully informed to avoid any anxiety among students, teachers and parents.

They are also asked to notify helpline numbers, emails which students can access for their queries. The universities and colleges are asked to inform the students, parents, teachers and staff not to panic, and take preventive and practitioner measures to combat COVID-19.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which is scheduled to conduct the JEE (Main) April 2020 examinations on April 5, 7, 9 and 11, has postponed the same. The new dates will be announced on March 31.

The issue of hall tickets which were to start from March 20, will now be issued after March 31.

The students and parents are asked for the latest updates to visit the website jeemain.nta.nic.in and www.nta.ac.in.

The information will be sent to the registered individual mobile numbers and emails of the students. They can also contact for any quarries calling the phone number: 0120-6895200.

The Union HRD Ministry clarified that since the JEE Mains require travel by examinees and the dates may clash with rescheduled CBSE and another board examines the examination has been rescheduling. The revised dates will be announced on March 31, after proper reassessment of the prevalent situation of COVID-19.

The Council of Indian School Certification Examinations (ISCE), Chief Executive Officer and Secretary, Gerry Arathoon, said, "The Council has decided to postpone the examinations in the interest of the health and well-being of the students and the teaching community.

Accordingly, all ICSE and ISC -2020 examinations scheduled to be conducted from March 19 to 31 has been postponed. The revised dates of the remaining papers will be notified in due course of time and asked the heads of all its affiliated schools to inform the same to all concerned candidates, teachers and parents immediately."

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Secretary, Anurag Tripathi, said that all ongoing Class X and XII examinations scheduled to be held across the country and abroad, from March 19 and 31 are rescheduled. New dates will be announced after March 31.

The rescheduled dates will be communicated by the board to all its stakeholders by March 31, after re-assessment of the situation, it added. Further, it has also suspended all ongoing board examinations related evaluation work in various evaluation centres in the country till March 31.

The Centre Nodal Supervisors are asked to ensure rescheduling of evaluation work from April 1, unless otherwise informed by the Board.

In a similar measure, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan (KVS) have also announced rescheduling all the examinations after March 31.

The KVS said that given the safety and security of the students, teachers and their parents, it has decided to close all the KVS till March 31 and suspending all classes, ongoing examinations, all evaluation work and activities like sports, training programmes are suspended till the end of March.