It appears to be the most terrible time for the young generation in India. With blurred announcements on the upcoming Board examination which supposedly was to be held in March, the student’s mental peace and health are being troubled more. As India witnesses the second wave of Covid-19, normal conduct of the board exams will not be efficient. Yet, the Ministry of Education is not likely to take any decision on the cancelation of the exams. With the government giving the least importance to the education sector during the pandemic, it creates an urgency to understand the resilience of board exams.
The board examination for Class X and XII should have been taken as per the normal schedule in March. However, elections and religious occasions stand out to be of prime importance in India. With such a mindset, the student’s future has been neglected. Now, with a ballooning number of cases, the Education Board seeks to conduct the exams in normal mode steering to a complete mess.
Educationists have seen pedagogy compromised due to the absence of classroom teaching. With little time to worry about the modifications required in the school curriculum, educational institutions around the world, supported by their governments, adopted online teaching as an antidote. However, while imitating the developed countries, India forgot to understand their ground realities. Inequality of access to the internet in India posed a challenge. The ownership of computing devices is abysmally low in India – only one out of 10 households possess a computing device. In rural India, less than 15% of the households have an internet facility while urban households are well-placed with 42% having access to the internet. The disparity in access to education at the root of the digital divide left children of poor and uneducated parents in limbo.
The case proved to be worsening for the girl child. Right to Education Forum policy brief estimated that ten million girls in India could drop out of secondary school due to the pandemic. University of Oxford’s sample study on India showed that four in five (80%) girls (based in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) have never accessed the Internet, and more than three in five (62%) have never used a computer.
The pandemic has also questioned the mental health of the students. Health Parliament’s mental health survey revealed that 99% of the participants had one or more issues related to mental health. Disturbed sleeping patterns (29%) and loss of interest in performing tasks (26%) were the most common issues faced by the students. 82% of students conveyed that most of the health and behavioral issues they faced during the pandemic were due to academic loss.
The result of all this over the past year is that India’s children have lived through a year of lost learning. The pandemic has put a heavy cost on the whole generation of students. In such an alarming academic regression year, with no proper classes, an incomplete syllabus, and where mental peace is at stake, taking board examinations for Class X and XII sounds absurd.
Yet, different boards of examination including CBSE, CISCE, and other state boards have clarified that the examination will be held this year. This statement has risen to be a matter of putting students’ life at risk for the sake of examination. At least 200 undergraduate students at MAMC were exposed to a Covid patient during a practical exam. With no sufficient resources to cover disparity across regions, this decision tends to expose students to worse outcomes. Raising voices, over 1 lakh students across the country have signed a petition on change.org to reconsider its decision. Multiple campaigns have been started on online platforms—#StudentsLiveMatter, #Cancel10thICSEBoard to name a few. Students, teachers, and parents have been proposing alternatives to regular examinations such as online modes of conduct or cancellation of the papers.
There seems to be no valid reason for the approval of Board exams for Class X. It should be completely canceled. National Education Policy (NEP) itself recommends doing away with class X board exams. Nonetheless, now at the time of implementation, the government looks to be backing behind. Addressing Class XII board exams, it should be conducted online only if the government can assure digital access to far-off regions. Else, cancellation of the papers will be the wise step ahead. Postponement of the paper should not even be thought of as it only adds more burden and chaos in the student’s life. Colleges and universities already have entrance exams that address admission issues. Albeit, such processes are not in action for many universities, the past 3-4 years of performance assessment can deal with such admission concerns during extreme times.
Rising tensions have put doubts on the importance of examination. Exams should not be considered as the main criteria for student promotion. Rather, there is a need to bring a transformational structural change to the education system in India. It should be more inclusive in personality and extra-curriculum development. On the other hand, the government should also make available more vaccines for the young age group. Immunising children is important rather than testing their brains.
It is time when India should learn from Nordic countries like Finland and build more cohesive educational programmes realising long-term gains. The government needs to shun the deeply flawed ‘technological approach’ to eliminate human suffering, and instead, adopt a humanist approach to tackle deprivation, including the provision of quality education through public deliberation, systematic investment, and enhanced accountability.
Education is a means to develop the fundamental skills of a child. With more than one lakh daily Covid-19 cases, the decision to conduct the board exams has thrown the entire education system into qualm. No parents are ready to send their children to the exam hall at the cost of their lives. To sustain the meaning of learning, the nation needs to come on grounds to understand the lives and challenges of students, parents, teachers, and the entire education system.
Rajesh Mehta is a leading international consultant & columnist working on Market Entry, Innovation & Public Policy. Diksha Mittal is a public policy researcher. Views expressed are personal.