Hyderabad: A petition has been launched by intermediate students demanding the Telangana government to not conduct the inter first year exams. The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education on September 24 released the schedule for the exams to begin from October 25 for students who are now studying in intermediate second year.
The petition, on www.change.org, was initiated by Varun Rao. Around 7,000 have singed the petition so far. Varun, in his petition requested the Telangana Government’s decision making bodies to give an option to the students whether to write the exam or not, or to not go ahead with it due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In his petition, Varun has expressed concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic which has already had a disastrous impact on youth and conducting inter first year exams is bad move. He further stated that many students have lost a person from their family and that they are not at all in a mental state to write exams.
Varun also added, “Telangana government is letting a piece of paper decide the health and well being of more than 4 lakhs students and their families. If the government decides to conduct the offline inter first year exams they should take complete responsibility for the health of each and every student including their families.”
Samia Jawad of Intermediate second year student commented on the petition,”We students are getting lot of stress n tension because we have second year to worry about, but when they announced that first year exams are gonna held, we all just lostt itt! I have half yearly exams of 2nd year coming. How many exams should i learn for?! We don’t want to go back to first year n write the exam! Why cant the govt jyst accept that n leave us as we are?!”
Another student Abhay Nishad wrote, “First year boards again will cause stress both mentally and physically… we need to go back a whole academic year in the mid term of another… prepare for first year finals then second year finals and then competitive exams like NEET and EAMCET… in times like COVID where the children still haven’t taken the vaccine the government wants to conduct public examinations… it seems like COVID has become the new government business… we don’t know if our attempt will work but we want to fight it… we’re doing all we can and we need your help and support as teachers know what’s best and safe for us.”
Shailendar Singh·one of the parent said, “The kids are not safe. We haven’t found vaccine for them yet. It will be stupidity to put additional pressure on them. When SSC candidates were allowed to pass why discrimination with inter students.”
A day earlier, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) on September 25 also called for a bandh of educational institutions in Telangana, coinciding with Bharat Bandh call given by farmer organisations for September 27, Monday. NSUI has demanded the Telangana government to withdraw its decision to conduct exams for intermediate first year students and promote them with a minimum of 60 per cent marks.