EXAMINATION IN PANDEMIC

Yesterday, on 9^th august, 2020 Uttar Pradesh government conducted its long awaited B.ED enrollment examination, for the students aspiring to be educators. Given the pandemic penetration in tier 2 and tier 3 towns, as evidenced by recent surge in SARS- COV 2 positive caseload, the atmosphere of the examination was far from normal with crowds of students wearing masks , frequently rubbing their hands with sanitizers  and being taken temperature of by infrared forehead thermometer gun. This was a peculiar and funny sight, straight out of a medical thriller which also hit home the new normal of the post-pandemic reality.

Given the sheer student density at each such centre of examinations –running into thousands, one would hope, all advisories and precautionary measures of the medical community would be heeded and adopted. I as a student at one such centre would like to give my  first hand- ground reality experience of examination in this pandemic ridden world, hoping to touch on something  that is, perhaps, obscure from the sights  at heights.

The entry for the first examination scheduled at 9:00 am started at approximately 8:30 am, and I must say I was genuinely gladdened by the due diligence of teachers, staff members and officials. The entire gamut of measures espoused by experts were stringently enforced including “do gaz ki doori”, mandatory use of masks and repeated use of hand sanitizers. This was a positive surprise and invoked  a sentiment of reassurance and hope in my heart. However, this sentiment was short lived, as when the first exam ended, the scrambling students exiting the campus, rubbing off and pushing each other shoulders with scant regard to six feet distance, the flocking of the crowd of relatives and parents (most of them above 50) to meet their blood. The officials who could not be bothered to extend their mandate outside the campus was a sorry sight.

This sorry sight was exacerbated by lack of organization and the Sunday lockdown situation. Many students (after giving exam) and their parents who came from far-flung areas were by now, obviously famished. However, the lockdown meant that there were few eateries and stalls open, so naturally these starving souls gravitated towards them, throwing social distancing in trash, which came in between their and their child’s bellies.

Few students who did not have the additional xerox and photo, required for the next exam, were busy knocking on shutters of print and photostate shops cajoling them to open. And once open incentivizing the shop owner with exorbitant amount to fulfill their requests. The consequence being unmanageable congestion in the shops that complied.

Aforementioned happening was entirely foreseeable and as such an avoidable scenario, which could be significantly, if not completely, lessened, only if authorities would have permitted essential shops to open and chosen to regulate their space. In hindsight, it is obvious that the blanket ban did not serve the object of shut down, if anything it furthered the suffering of student and their guardians. Nobody in right sense can expect a famished, fatigued, fear-stricken (because of pandemic) and tortured soul (because of humidity and heat) to adhere to a new social normal.

In my humble opinion, and given the sheer suffering caused by covid, even in developed world, the offline module of examination needs to be eliminated for the foreseeable future. If pragmatism does not allow for this, then the least that is required, nay needed, is blending of the offline with the online module to reduce the congestion load so that the present and the upcoming suffering (soaring of covid positive cases) can be managed. Also this pandemic does not play by our rules, it certainly does not spread by keeping our duty hours in mind, so the duty bound attitude of officials and enforcers needs to give way to the humanity centered attitude, where men in uniform are enforcing- with compassion and empathy- rules even outside their mandate- not just inside the campus but outside as well.

This ownership and diligence on the part of executive would instill caution and hope in the society at large. Afterall, a welfare state, by its very definition, instills values in society not by speeches but by demonstration, not by rhetoric, but by applied resolve, and its citizens offer it loyalty and trust not because of obligation but because of its performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                              FEA