Tamil Nadu government has decided to cancel all the intermediate year/semester exams except for the final in all the colleges and universities in the state. The students who will not be appearing for the exam will be promoted based on the formula suggested by the UGC/AICTE, reports Times of India.

Announcing the move Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami said students who have been exempted from writing the exam will be awarded marks based on the guidelines suggested by the UGC and AICTE. All the students will be promoted for the next semester or year, added the CM.

The report said that all the universities are in the process of formulating the ways in which they will be assessing the final year or final semestert students. The guidelines issued by the UGC had asked universities to conduct the final year examination and had given leeway to the universities on remaining semester/year.

The CM also said that TN government had made a 11-member panel to finalise the modalities of conducting the examination. The panel had suggested that there is no possibility of conducting the examination amid the COVID-19 crisis in the state, adds the report. A detailed order will be issued by the Higher Education Department on this issue soon, said the CM.

Tamil Nadu is the second-worst affected state after Maharashtra in terms of COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the state had recorded its highest single-day surge in the number of cases and deaths with more than 5400 new cases and more than 500 deaths. The total number of cases in the state until Wednesday had crossed the 1.86 lakh and death toll is more than 3100.