In the wake of the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases and the uncertainty triggered by the outbreak, the Tamil Nadu government has announced that the semester exams for the colleges in the current academic year stand canceled owing to the spread of viral infection and lockdown.

The announcement of what has poured a relief to the students has been made by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami. The Chief Minister has, on Thursday, said that the college students will be promoted to the next year, without taking up the semester examinations that were earlier scheduled on May 2020 which later deferred due to the lockdown. 

However, the government has clarified that the final year students of both undergraduate and postgraduate will be appearing for the examinations as their exams will be conducted. The Chief Minister said that the marks for the promoted students without the examinations will be awarded based on the guidelines proposed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Based on the fresh order of canceling the exams, the first and second-year undergraduate and first-year postgraduate students studying in the arts and science colleges, first, second, and third-year undergraduate and first-year postgraduate students studying in the engineering colleges, and first-year MCA students, and  students studying diploma courses will be promoted to the next academic year. 

According to the reports, all universities are mandated to conduct exams for final year students based on the guidelines issued by the UGC. The state government said that it would be rolling out further details soon on when and how the semester exams for the final year students will be conducted amid the Coronavirus outbreak. 

The decision of canceling the exams was taken based on the recommendations disclosed by the high level committee formed by the state government. The government has installed the committee to arrive at the decision of conducting exams in the colleges based on the guidelines of UGC and AICTE. The committee has comprised eleven experts that discussed and reviewed the methods and measures of conducting the exams based on the current situation.

The committee has said to the state government that conducting the semester exams is not feasible amid the COVID-19 spread and suggested to cancel the exams following which the state government has passed the order of promoting the students, except the final year students, to the next academic year. 

Although the students aren't informed about how they will be promoted, the reports say that the government would instruct the colleges to consider the internal assessements to evaluate students as a channel of promotion whereas the final year students can appear for the exams online. The promotion channel of students would most likely be how the students of class ten would be promoted to the next level. 

Earlier, the Tamil Nadu government has canceled the board exams for the class ten students owing to the spread of COVID-19 cases and directed the schools to promote them based on their quarterly and half-yearly marks and their attendance. The cancellation of semester exams has come at a high time when the state has reported the unprecedented spike of COVID-19 cases in a single day.

On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu has reported 5,849 cases with the active contributions from the districts outside Chennai. As of Wednesday, Tamil Nadu has reported 1,86,492 cases so far of which 51,765 are active, 1,31,583 have been recovered, and 3,144 had succumbed to the virus.