Kerala University’s decision to hold offline examinations for students later this month, amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has come under criticism. Congress leader and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Friday tweeted calling the move ‘highly irresponsible’. Exams for sixth semester students of Kerala University are scheduled to be held on June 15.
“It's irresponsible that the Kerala University S6 exams are scheduled from 15th June. Pushing students into circumstances that may endanger many lives is an injustice. I urge @CMOKerala (Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan) and @KeralaGovernor (Governor Arif Mohammed Khan) to put all exams in the state on hold or conduct online tests, if unavoidable,” Shashi Tharoor said in the tweet.
Many students also raised concerns over conducting offline examinations amid the pandemic. While many raised concerns over returning home to elderly family members after attending the examination, others pointed to the difficulty in travelling long distances amid the lockdown to write the exam. Meanwhile, Mahatma Gandhi University has also announced that examinations will be held post June 15. Kerala Agricultural University had also announced the holding of exams post June 15.
According to reports, only Kerala Technical University has announced conducting online examinations, while others are mooting offline exams. In a recent meeting of Vice Chancellors of various universities in the state, most of them had reportedly been urged to conduct offline exams.
According to the regular schedule of the universities, most exams were supposed to be held in May. However, it got postponed due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. The Kerala government has announced more lockdown regulations in the state from Saturday (June 5) until June 9. According to the state government, the move is to bring down the test positivity rate in the state.
And many of us have aged individuals in our homes who are more prone to this sickness. Can they please cancel our exams or at least take some other form of valuation, like our internal marks into consideration.
— Rohith Shajan Kolamkanny (@rohithshajan) June 4, 2021
Yes! Its very dangerous for us to travel long distances and also stay in hostels for the exams. I hope you can do something about it. We are already in a stressful situation.
— I_am_not_feeling_fabulous (@Iamnotfeelingf1) June 4, 2021