Pandemic and examinations are coming again are we ready?
According to data the first day when COVID-19 came into India was 30th January 2020. It’s been a complete 1 year, 2 months since we met the dangerous virus of our lifetime. Since then we have seen so many immediate and longing changes around ourselves which we never thought would happen ever. The changes were in almost every sector be it the e-commerce sector, IT sector, FMCG sector, or the education sector.
Let’s talk about the education sector where things have gone massively different than they were in the past. We acknowledged change and accepted it with a whole heart. Many of the exams went off the desk for children in the country in the same pandemic era and many exams waited or got postponed for future dates. At the same time, we all were waiting for a vaccine to enter the world as a hope of life for all of us. Well, that happened and we got our vaccine.
And we believed that things will get better after the entry of vaccines into the world. That happened but not completely vaccine came and worked but meanwhile by the irresponsible behaviour of all the human beings, things went off the table and the pandemic again took its massive shape.
The education sector was trying to reshape itself during the times of pandemic by shifting itself to online ways. But that kind of discontinued when things started to be in the past form. Like when things were slowly shifting back to normal. People started schools again; coaching went back to their physical attendance form. Learning or teaching in the education sector went back to its original form like it was in the past just like other sectors in the corresponding world.
Then again with the sudden re-entry of pandemic named as the COVID-19 strain. People again started going through the pain and many lives again went into the risk of their survival. So again we have relied on online learning. This multiple shifting of platforms like from offline to online and then from online to offline and then again back to online disturbed a lot of the sentiments and capabilities of the students. It kind of broke the patience of students who were suffering behind all of this.
Now is the time of examinations again, board examinations are heading and the question arises, which way? How? Where? Online? Offline? Which way is the safest for children?
Why we should not have the examinations offline?
- The strain is harder than the first wave of COVID-19 –
In the earlier times of pandemic as we all have seen pandemic was tough to handle but not this much. But as we can see this year, the pandemic is hitting in different and many new ways. It is getting hard to handle the situation this year. So letting children out during these serious situations of a pandemic is not a good idea.
- No matter what, going out is risky –
We all would have never thought of the re-entry of the pandemic and that too this tough to handle. So nobody was ready against the pandemic, not the hospitals, not the doctors, patients were not ready for the unexpected re-entry of a pandemic. So we can expect that we will be saved, we will get help if COVID hits us but nothing comes with surety.
- When we are having our alternatives then why risk lives? –
Well, the truth is examinations are important for the future of the students but not more than the lives of the students. So if we are here with the alternative for the medium of examinations then why not choose the alternatives over risking the lives of students and their families? It is better and safer to go with the options available to all of us for the examinations rather than choosing the offline examination thing. It can seriously harm the lives of many. And that is not a good idea though.
There are so many other reasons too that define that going out for exams during times of the pandemic is not a good option. But here discussing all of them is not that easy. On the other hand, we all will have to understand that this pandemic has already hurt many the very last year and we cannot forget that picture that was from around the world. So after knowing and everything in advance we cannot force our children to be a part of this pain deliberately. Things will happen eventually when they are good according to nature. Right now it is the time to understand the signs that nature is giving all of us let us just pray for a better future together, that is starting with today’s hard work and nobody else will make it happen we will have to work towards a better tomorrow for all of us.