Mumbai: St Xavier’s, Jai Hind give students more time to write offline exams

MUMBAI: Even as final exams commence at some of the city's autonomous colleges in the offline mode, Mumbai University has asked them to give some concessions to students. These colleges are holding offline exams after a gap of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the circular issued on Saturday by the university's board of examinations and evaluations, the director, Vinod Patil said that students from autonomous colleges should be given more time to write the offline exams.The university also asked colleges to give students breaks between two papers and to schedule the exam as per students' convenience.
Colleges have also been asked to look at the convenience of outstation students, following the Covid-19 restrictions, and accordingly make arrangements.
Following the directive, St Xavier's College, on Sunday, issued a notice increasing the duration of their exams. The notice mentioned that students will get two hours for the 50-mark paper instead of 90 minutes. A schedule with the revised timings was put up on the portal. Exams at the college are scheduled to start from Monday.
Students at Jai Hind College, which is also conducting final exams in the offline mode, will get two hours for the 60-mark paper. The paper will have multiple choice as well as descriptive questions. "We had already considered the points mentioned by the university before scheduling our exams," said principal Ashok Wadia, adding that they never wanted it to be too taxing on students. Exams at Jai Hind will commence from April 1.
Exams at Mithibai and NM Colleges, both under the SVKM group, have already started. At NM College, at least three papers are over for final-year students. The colleges had decided to give 30 minutes more for the paper. "The university has sent the letter as a formality to show they are helping students. But such a letter at the eleventh hour does not help us in any way," said a student. Weeks ago, the joint director's office also issued a similar letter asking these colleges to hold the exams in the online mode. But the directive was not binding on colleges.