Most universities are still hell-bent on conducting exams even though there is no way to do so. For India, that seems to be the only marker of education.

This is not unsurprising though, as Indian educational administrations are not known to be kind to their students. Everything from complicated procedures for the simple administrative work, uncooperative and glitchy website servers, unpaid academic resources and inaccessible officials — it’s like the very institutional framework is erected to make life as difficult as possible for students.

You have to prove that you learned something of importance in the last four months that you sat in class. Of course, most students don’t actually sit in class and can easily pass these exams by cramming any guidebook. So, essentially, the very purpose of these exams is never fulfilled. Perhaps, all of this is still justifiable under normal circumstances.

But the current situation is far from normal. This is the one time these universities can afford to swivel away from the norm and take drastic measures. Measures like cancelling exams. It is not even that strange a recommendation. A friend studying in Hyderabad Central University shared that a committee of professors has suggested that exams should be cancelled and students should be awarded an average score based on their past performance. The committee also recommended that students should be given an option to to sit for exams if they wish to improve their score.

If one university can do it, surely, it is not unprecedented to call for all universities to follow suit. They need to understand that it is absolutely unfair to ask students to sit for exams in the middle of a pandemic. Not only does the question of access arise but also about their psychological circumstances. How is one supposed to concentrate on studying for exams when all they hear are the number of lives thiscoronavirus has claimed. Moreover, some of these students or their family members could be infected by the virus, which just makes the situation more stressful for such people.

Cancel exams in 2021,focus on learning.

Views are personal.

Universities like to constantly evaluate students but during the Covid crisis, they can be a little empathetic and cancel exams.

Every child in India wishes at some point that their schools get shut for the foreseeable future and they get to languish at home. Another wish that closely follows is that exams get delayed, or better yet, cancelled.

With the coronavirus wreaking havoc across the world, these two express wishes of students have, in fact, come true. But not in the best of circumstances. Schools and colleges were among the first institutions to be shut when the pandemic was announced, even in India. However, these holidays are not as blissful as students thought they would be.