Not in right frame of mind to give exams: NU students

Nagpur: With a spike in Covid-19 cases, many Nagpur University students were infected and many also lost their parents or relatives. They’re now demanding to cancel ongoing winter-2020 and forthcoming summer-2021 examinations stating that they weren’t in the proper mindset to appear in them.
After some of them started a campaign under the hashtag ‘#rtmnu_cancel_ exams’ on Twitter and other social media platforms, a large number of aggrieved students joined them while flaying NU’s decision to go ahead with the examinations. They’re also getting support from their counterparts in other universities.
According to them, after suffering a lot due to the deadly disease and also losing out their near and dear ones, they weren’t in the position to appear in papers and also facing bouts of depression.
While tagging their tweets to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, chancellor BS Koshyari, tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray and even actor Sonu Sood, the students blamed NU administration of playing with their lives by forcing the exams on them amid the pandemic.
Citing examples of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, they said when these states can promote the students, why NU authorities were bent on exams under such stressful conditions.
“On one hand, we’re immersing ashes of our loved ones and are filled up with all negativity and emotional trauma, on the other, you are pressuring us for exams. Even online classes were not being held regularly and a majority of us faced network problems and other technical glitches. Many of us from the rural areas faced perennial problems of load shedding and thus, missed classes while some couldn’t afford gadgets,” they said while asking NU on how to deal with these issues.
Students to be at loss if papers are cancelled: Sable
Responding to the students’, Board of Examination and Evaluation (BOEE) director Prafulla Sable said cancelling examinations and promoting them wouldn’t be of anyone’s interest and ultimately, they would be at loss.
“When they would be tested at the national or international level, they would be exposed and ultimately the university would be blamed. Importantly, we can’t cancel the entire examination just for the sake of a few hundred students,” he said.
He said in NU’s first semester papers, which were deferred till May 27, over 1.1 lakh students would be appearing. “Of them, if just 1,000 are demanding cancellation, the remaining 1.09 lakh are still ready to give exams. Why should these 1.09 lakh suffer just because just 1,000 aren’t ready to appear?”
Last year, NU had promoted them as they weren’t ready for handling the pandemic and even UGC and Maharashtra government had suggested it. “Now, we have online systems in place, the vaccine is available, and Covid-19 cases are going down. I don’t see any reason to cancel the exams,” he added.