Hyderabad: Osmania University students on Saturday wrote an appeal to the Telangana Chief Minister over conducting degree examinations.
The Chief Minister,
Telangana.
On behalf of all the students of the state, I would like to bring it to your notice that The Osmania University is currently planning on conducting examinations for all the degree students. The university is planning on conducting these examinations not via online methods but like they usually would that is, without considering the current pandemic situation.
The students that would be appearing for these examinations would be coming from various areas which would definitely include the red zoned areas. Not only the students but also the invigilators and the additional staff present to conduct these examinations could be traveling from the red zoned localities and these facts itself are quite a threat to the population of the entire state
Furthermore, since public transportation has been put to a halt due to obvious reasons, the entire crowd that would have to get to their respective examination centers would have to be using their private vehicles. In this situation, it has to be considered that not every family owns a car and most of these families use two-wheeler vehicles but according to the recent transportation rules, one of the safety measures that is put to practice at all hours is that only one person should be using a two-wheeler vehicle.
The question that arises here is, what about the families that do not own a car from which, more than one person has to appear for the examination? While adding to the same, can the sanitization of the examination centers, question papers, answer sheets, and the surroundings be confirmed? Even if the answer is positive, the confirmation of each and every person not being infected among the various people that would be coming together from different localities can not be given since the person himself might not be aware of his/her condition or could be under the 14 days’ confirmation period.
Also, is it reasonable that once the examination has for instance, somehow taken place, then all the answer sheets would be stacked up and sent for correction while risking the examiner since those sheets would have been in contact with various persons while collection? The university has not once put forward its safety precautions, which even if they would do, it would just not be safe for a crowd of people to gather anytime soon due to the Covid-19 situation.
Are the examinations being given priority over thousands of people’s lives or is the technology that has been progressing for years now is just not being applied? While there are safer alternatives out there, for example, conducting online examinations like the Delhi University is conducting, Telengana is not reaching towards them.
While the other states of India are putting the lives of the people and the students as the top priority and is selecting a rather safe approach, Osmania University of Telengana is risking the lives of its students who are the very future of not only the state but also the country. We, as students hope, that more thought would be put before taking any final decision towards the conduction of any examination so that in future, we have these examples to look back to where humans practiced humanity.
Below is the link containing Osmania University’s notification to its students regarding the examinations. https://www.timesnownews.com/education/article/ou-exam-2020-osmania-university-ug-exam-2020-to-be-conducted-in-second-week-of-june/59064
Thanking you in anticipation.
Copy to;
- The Governor of Telangana (Chancellor of Osmania University),
- The Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University,
- The Chief Justice of the Honourable High Court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
- The Education Minister,
- The Press Trust of India,
- The Chief Editor, Deccan Chronicle,
- The Chief Editor, The Hindu,
- The Chief Editor, The Times of India,
- The Director-General of Police.