Warm greetings of the day!
First of all I would like to ask a question to everyone. Exams or lives? Are the students not concerned about their future? Don't they want to have a better future? Don't they deserve to live? Are the students shying away from the exams? Has the courses been completed in every institutions? Keep the answer with yourself. I don't need them
Few months ago during the 3rd week of March, as the country grappled with the initial outbreak of COVID-19, the central and state governments took drastic steps such as closing down institutions, closing down everything, eventually leading to a countrywide lock down. Many students were impacted through this decision as it led to the delaying of their examinations, leading to delay of the publication of results and issuance of provisional degree certificate and grade-sheets. This bears a huge impact on the student community as many students have plans to pursue their higher studies or industry jobs after graduation. However, it was high time that the government take extreme steps to contain the outbreak and the student community welcomed the decision.
Today, the scenario is much more worse. There are more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases observed every day in the country with more than 7,000 cumulative deaths till date. In every state, many COVID-19 cases are being observed from each and every district on a daily basis and there are no signs of the outbreak being contained. On the contrary, owing to the lock down restrictions being eased, the number of cases is rising with every passing day and it is completely uncertain when the peak will hit and when the cases will start slowing down.
Everybody may be thinking that students have got such a long quarantine, many of them would have wasted it and only some of them would have used it for studying. I will tell from my experience, most of the students are studying. But most of the students are studying beyond their course. To be frank for the course materials were to be taught by the teachers. Students have paid some thousands or may be even lakhs to the schools and colleges. Are the authorities going to return back the money to the students? I don't think this will happen. Studying beyond the course is a very good thing. It would be helpful in future. For example, Python (Engineering students can get it) is not being taught in any institute according to my knowledge. But it is required for most of the jobs. So it is being helpful for the students.
Talking about the exams. What are the prerequisites for exam? Most importantly the course completion. Those institutes who are going to conduct exams can they say that they have completed all their course. Most of the teachers will say that they have done online classes and completed almost all the course. What about the students? Ask the students about it.
How many students were present in the online classes? How many of them have got disconnected in the middle of the class due to poor connection or anything else? How many students have not joined at all due to lack of internet or may be anything else? What was the attendance percentage? How many students have asked their doubts? How many were not able to listen to the teachers properly? Were all these similar to a normal classroom?
Students are not who are shying away from academia or examinations, but the times are tough, the situation is unprecedented, the cases are rising, and it is high time that the Government and the University abrogate the planned examinations and explore other solutions to settle the career of final year students without imperiling their health and possibly their lives.
- There is no guarantee that the exam conducting body or the people involved in it will ensure safe and hygiene practices while conducting the examinations across all districts and across all examination centers. Controlling the crowd and keeping most of the students disciplined is a major challenge. Even a single mistake may prove to be hazardous and in no time the situation may escalate seriously. If any single student contracts with COVID-19 in the due process, will the Government and the University take responsibility? The students, if infected, also pose a great risk to their elderly family members and infants in their household.
- Many students had traveled to their hometowns in various states of the country as soon as they were asked to vacate their hostels. The situation in all states is beyond piteous. The inter-state transportation modes are also limited and many students can’t afford airfares. How will those students travel to their colleges in such a situation? Even if somehow few of them are able to come back , they pose a great risk in spreading the infection in the examination centers. How will management solve this problem? Where will such students stay? If your answer is that the students will be sanctioned hostel accommodation, who will ascertain safe practices and hygiene in the hostels? The congestion, the shared bathrooms, the common mess, who will ensure each and everything is managed impeccably without any mistake? What are the plans for quarantining such students?
- When the students were asked to vacate their hostels, they left for their homes without carrying their books, notes and other study material. None of us anticipated that such a situation will arise. In many colleges, the syllabus is far from over. The University has withal not shared any study material through the online medium for such students to study in the lock down period. Students do not have access to any library facilities. Moreover, many students stay in rural areas and do not have access to proper internet connection and computer facilities. How will such students study and prepare for the examinations? You obviously do not expect the students to recollect the entire course content that they had studied during the pre-lock down period and you also do not expect the students to appear for their examinations unprepared.
- Many students have underlying health conditions such as Asthma, Pneumonia, etc. that might become profoundly hazardous and probably fatal (God forbid so) if infected by COVID-19. Do the exams matter more than their lives?
With all of these disadvantages and concerns, it is facile to understand how the desideratum of the hour is not to ask for a centralized examination when there are several other more immensely colossal tests that life, in its most laconic sense, has put forth in front of us — especially to the graduating students. This group of people, still in their early 20s, had anticipated graduation ceremonies, farewells, convocations, jobs, further studies or preparation for competitive exams. Now, all that has been relegated to struggling against anxieties about that very future which seemed so certain and well-placed a few months ago.
I sincerely hope that the Government and the University pays serious attention to the concerns of the students and make amicable decisions which are in the larger interests of the student community and their upcoming future.
Save lives
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