IGNOU exams during elections; Students in distress

Thiruvananthapuram: IGNOU has announced exam dates on the same days the local body elections are being held in the state. The university’s December end- term examinations are scheduled from December 1 to January 14.

Around fifty thousand people in the state are IGNOU students. In the Thiruvananthapuram region alone, nearly twenty thousand students will be writing the exams. Hall tickets have already been issued. Despite the local body elections, the IGNOU Student Evaluation Division has stated that the exams will not be postponed.

IGNOU students come from various employment sectors. Many of them are teachers assigned for election duty, municipal employees, and government officials. If the dates are not changed, these individuals will not be able to attend the examinations. Moreover, transportation on polling days will also be limited. Students as well as political and social activists approached IGNOU explaining these difficulties, but no action was taken.

MP A A Rahim has written to the IGNOU Vice -Chancellor, and MPs John Brittas and V Sivadasan have written to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the iss