‘This is why I want Class 12 exams cancelled’
On March 11, 2020, I woke up excited to attend the first day of my last year of school. The pandemic’s severity was minimal and the year was filled with the hope of new friendships and graduating with memories to last a lifetime. But the Class 12 experience lasted a mere two days, after which our school shut its doors owing to a rise in Covid cases. Soon thereafter, a national lockdown was declared, leading to an indefinite shutdown of schools across India.
What followed was a transition to a newfound system of online learning. The transition was no less than a culture shock to most of us. Alternative modes of assessment were suggested, wherein weekly tests or major half-yearly exams were conducted via platforms such as Google forms or exam.net.
In interactions with our peers, teachers or parents, a statement that conveyed our unanimity and also served as our coping mechanism was “this too shall pass”. But for how long, I wondered, would we have to abstain ourselves from openly living the way we used to? The spark of positivity once in our minds was losing its effervescent flicker.
While most of us tried to keep up by studying studiously, some of us began to lose hope. “Will there be a cure to this disease?”, “Will things ever get back to normal?”, were questions I would hear as whispers around me. Slowly, but gradually, the severity of the virus began to ease, igniting hope of normalcy. This was our first mistake. Not the hope, but the initiation of living casually. Some stopped wearing masks, began meeting up in large groups and started to undermine the situation completely.
Fortunately, the postponement of the Class 12 board exams on April 14, 2021 by the central government bought students time to revise and secure better scores. While some students celebrated this extra time, most of us saw this as mentally daunting. Over the past year, all of us 12th graders have been following a monotonous schedule of online schooling and offline tasks that involve updating the school through email, preparing for our board and practical examinations. The consistency of internal and external pressures have resulted in a physical and mental burnout. Our peers, neighbours and acquaintances have suffered irreparable losses. Every day we hope and pray the situation will improve, but the death count continues to be high.
As the most important stakeholders in the learning community, most of us feel the Class 12 exam should be cancelled and alternative means of assessment be formulated. It is unfair to ask students, subjected to 15 months of isolation and deprivation of all physical and social interaction with peers and teachers, to suddenly swing back to normalcy.
How can one expect hundreds of students to flock to an examination centre, putting not only themselves but also their peers at risk? I have not turned 18, and many others too. Delhi’s education minister Manish Sisodia recently said only 25% Class 12 students are over 18, making the remaining 75% ineligible for vaccination. This is a point of huge concern, especially for young minds.
The government and CBSE must place legitimate faith on schools and teachers and give them the flexibility to formulate other ways of assessment. This can take any form, maybe an internal exam, or an multiple-choice question test or a project. Further postponement of our exam would be tortuous and daunting to our mental health. A lot of students have experienced major losses, and in that state of mind, one can never focus on learning or writing a three-hour long paper.
While board exams may be recognised as an integral part of student academics, given the current scenario, life should prevail over a mere theoretical expression on paper.