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

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.

And Indian educational institutions were just not ready for the lockdown.

 
With school and colleges shut, there was a mad dash to compensate for the lost time by introducing haphazard models of online learning. In most Indian educational institutions, it is actually a miracle to find a working computer and WiFi connection with proper bandwidth. In the midst of such technological deficiency, any sort of online module is bound to fail.

But the online classes began, and are still continuing. However, a similar poorly glued together plan cannot be undertaken for exams. Especially when you can’t trust your WiFi and computer security. While classes are about imparting knowledge, exams, especially in the context of Indian education, are about evaluation and competition. If students have not been taught properly, the question of a formal evaluation should not even arise.