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Bengaluru, May 3: Undergraduate and postgraduate students skipping online classes held by their universities run the risk of being debarred from writing their exams. 

State universities, which are monitoring the attendance of online classes, are asking their affiliate colleges to send the monthly online attendance details and this would reflect in their regular attendance. This would apply to those studying professional courses like medicine and engineering. 

State medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar has asked all medical colleges to regularly send attendance details to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).

RGUHS vice-chancellor Dr Sachidanand confirmed to DH that the varsity is indeed monitoring the attendance of students. “Online classes are equal to classroom teaching. (Such method of conducting classes) are necessary during the Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown,” he said.

According to the Supreme Court directions, students should have 75% attendance to be eligible to appear for the final exams. There could be relaxations if they have health issues. If students are bunking online classes, it would reflect on their minimum attendance necessary to appear for the exams, the vice-chancellors of state-run varsities said.

Bangalore University vice-chancellor Prof K R Venugopal said most of the students are attending online classes and teachers are messaging the parents of those who are irregular. “(Of course) if they fall short of the minimum attendance, they won’t be allowed to appear for the exams,” he said.

Bengaluru North University vice-chancellor Prof T D Kemparaju said the administration has asked its teachers to record details of students attending online classes and update the university.

Mixed signals 

Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday issued guidelines directing all universities to treat the lockdown period as “deemed as attended” for students and research scholars. Experts pointed out that the order would prompt students not to take the online classes seriously.

“Arrangements have been made at the state varsities to make students attend online classes compulsorily and students are also serious about it. Now, because of the UGC guidelines, they may bunk classes,” said the vice-chancellor of a state-run university.

Bengaluru, Jan 8: The Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to adopt a no-fail approach for Class 7 examinations for government and private schools following the state syllabus.

The report card of a student doesn’t carry ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ remark, but points to his or her strengths and weaknesses in each subject in the exams, which will now be called Common Evaluation Exam.

The quality cell of the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (which conducts SSLC exams) will prepare question papers, which will be evaluated at the district level by government and private schoolteachers. The Class 7 exams will be held in March.

The Common Evaluation Exam follows the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) currently practised under the Right to Education Act. “The formative and summative assessments (tests, projects and quizzes) will be held as usual,”KG Jagadeesha, commissioner of public instruction, said.

Edu dept to launch helpline by March

For the March exam, summative assessment 2 will be held with half the syllabus. Other modalities (exam duration and total marks) will be announced next week,” said KG Jagadeesha. The CCE system will continue for classes 8 and 9. The government hopes the exam and subsequent interventions in classes 8 and 9 will boost students’ confidence for crucial board examinations.

Minister S Suresh Kumar said, “More than an exam, it’s an evaluation of a child’s knowledge. The Belagavi division has done something similar. The Kalaburagi zone found mathematics and science were areas of concern; language was an issue in Urdumedium schools.” The minister said zilla panchayat CEOs have observed that intervention should start from class 8. “Keeping this in mind, we’ve started necessary preparation for class 7 exam ,” he added.

The education department will start a helpline by March for students, teachers, school managements and educationists to 11 raise problems on day-to-day issues.

The government of India has added 141 more flights to West Asian countries for the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission, its massive repatriation programme for citizens stranded overseas because of Covid-19-related travel restrictions.

The second phase was to end on May 22. However, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the ongoing phase will last till June 13 and that India is looking at making Frankfurt a hub for the mission.

With these new flights, more than half of them to the United Arab Emirates, the total number of flights in the second phase of the programme have gone up to more than 400, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity.

The flights were added due to increased demand from citizens stranded in West Asian countries and the availability of adequate quarantine facilities in states for the returning Indians, the people said. As with all the flights operated so far under Vande Bharat Mission, priority will be given in the second phase to Indian nationals with compelling reasons for returning to the country, they added.

The additional flights are from the UAE (81 flights), Oman and Saudi Arabia (15 flights each), Kuwait (14 flights), Qatar (11 flights) and Bahrain (five flights).

A majority of the flights are bound for Kerala (84 flights), while the other destinations are Delhi (10 flights), Tamil Nadu (nine flights), Telangana (six flights) Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (five flights each), Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (four flights each), Punjab (three flights), Odisha and West Bengal (two flights each), Chandigarh, Karnataka and Goa (one flight each).

The other 260-odd flights being operated during the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission are from Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tajikistan, the UK, Ukraine and the US.

The second phase of the repatriation programme began on May 16 and will continue till June 13, with all the flights being operated by state-run Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. Private airlines are likely to be included in the third phase.

As of Thursday, a total of 23,475 Indians have been repatriated under Vande Bharat Mission. The second phase had included new destinations such as Istanbul, Ho Chi Minh City and Lagos, and had increased flights to the US and Europe.

More than 259,000 Indians in 98 countries across the world have registered to return under Vande Bharat Mission. Most of them are workers (28%), students (25%), professionals (14.5%), and short-term visa holders such as tourists (7.6%). Fishermen, deportees and Indian nationals who benefited from visa amnesties have also registered.