Students of the Government College of Art and Craft at Khallikote affiliated to Utkal University of Culture are worried as the university announced to conduct the pending semester and mid-semester examinations of Bachelor of Performing Art (BPA) and Bachelor of Visual Art (BVA) courses for the academic year 2020-24 together, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Both these courses are for a duration of four years with each year having two semesters. The academic session of the college is already running behind the schedule by one year due to lack of faculty members and non-holding of classes during the pandemic (2020).
Further, on the condition of anonymity, a group of students informed, "In 2020, no online classes were held for most of the subjects due to lack of faculty members. Since the college reopened after lockdown, the existing assistant lecturers have been trying to complete the course and conduct exams haphazardly."
On Tuesday, March 28, the university announced that it would begin the second, fourth and sixth-semester exams from Friday, April 1 and complete them by April 20. Further, it also notified that mid-semester exams of third, fifth and seventh semester students will be conducted from April 3 to 13. "There is very little time to even prepare for the exams. The college authorities should at least postpone the mid-semester exams for now," they added.
Moreover, efforts to contact the principal of the college, Subrat Kumar Mullick, did not yield any response, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.