Postpone all offline exams scheduled for this month: Education Ministry

Education Ministry on Monday asked all centrally-funded education institutions (IITs, NITs, CUs, IIITs etc) to postpone offline exams scheduled this month due to the second wave of the pandemic in the country. Online exams, however, may continue.

Meanwhile, many educational institutes including Delhi University has postponed the final year examination.

Dean Examinations of Delhi University, Diwan Rawat said that the decision was taken following a meeting attended by all deans and chaired by the acting vice-chancellor. He also said that the most immediate factor for the postponement was the large number of COVID cases among the university's examination branch. The exams will be held in June.

#StudentsLivesMatter: Cancel, don't just defer exams say DU students

Students of Delhi University have come forward to raise their voice about the stress to appear for exams, sooner or later. While some are battling Covid themselves, others are tending to their Covid positive family members, and feel that it's taking a toll on their mental health to prepare for exams alongside. Unable to cope this stress, students of varsities across India have also written to the authorities, with a signed petition, asking for their exams to be cancelled and not just postponed.

Alongside, the youngsters are also participating in Twitter storms to ensure that their voice is heard.

"Humare exams cancel nahi hue, they have been rescheduled in July. And we really want suspension of online classes for atleast two weeks. Teachers ko bhi request kiya tha, but koi nahi sun raha humari," says Disha Bhatia, a first year student of Gargi College, DU, adding, "Second and third year ke exams abhi ke liye cancel ho gaye hain, but phir bhi unko bola ja raha hai ki June 1 se unke exams honge... The new wave of Covid has created a turbulence in lives of most of us. Irrespective of this, the professors have been continuously pushing us with back to back tests and assignments. With all the negativity and emotional trauma around us, even the online classes have become a headache and are affecting our mental health."

Meanwhile, IITians have also been facing extreme mental pressure with regard to their examination, and want them to get postponed. Aditi Singh, a student of IIT Delhi, says, "Actually, a lot of students have directly or indirectly been affected by Covid, and we all want the exams to be postponed. They have neither lessened the assignment strain nor have they changed the examination dates yet. Only, there has been a relaxation in the grading and passing criteria. But we want exams to be postponed by at least a week or so, considering the current scenario."

Stay tuned with the newstrack to get fastest updates. Click @englishnewstrack to follow us on Facebook and @newstrackmedia to follow on Twitter.