Some of the students claimed that they were not properly taught and turned to Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor for help. Students argued that it is unfair to hold board exams offline and demanded alternatives, including online exams, internal assessments or the cancellation of board exams.
In one of the tweets, students said, “We didn’t learn to be prepared for boards. This is really unfair to the online batch. They tell us to prepare right away without any preparation for the offline board exam.”
The student demanded cancellation of board exams for both state boards and NIOS, further writing: “Government is not paying attention, we are having a hard time… We have to make a fair decision.” She added: “The teachers have had network problems. We have lost touch with writing. We have no necessary books or notes.”
She claimed that this was the problem of many students and not just hers, she asked Tharoor to intervene, saying “students are under a lot of pressure.” Many students agreed with her and took their concerns to Tharoor.
Our education minister of Maharashtra says that online exams are not possible because many students in Maharashtra do not have a good phone with a good internet connection. How will she explain 2 years of online lectures then? #InternalAssessemtForAll2022— Yashik (@ImHopium) March 7, 2022
Another student wrote: “Our education minister of Maharashtra says that online exams are not possible because many students in Maharashtra do not have a good phone with good internet connection. Then how will she explain 2 years online lectures?”
In response to the students, Tharoor said: “I sympathize with the problem, but what is the solution? If there are no exams, don’t students lose a year?”
As someone who has to do self-study, I will tell you that even if we write exams offline, we can still lose a year. Why? Because that’s how much pressure is on us. In the NIOS board they have not reduced any syllabus. We had to study on our own without offline classes. No teachers to guide us.— Tri⁷ (@triloveskoo) March 6, 2022
However, this did not stop students who continue to argue their case in what appears to be a digital protest from making their demands.
Most of our syllabus is incomplete and frankly, no matter how hard we try, it feels like we can’t complete the whole syllabus in such a short time. We asked for syllabus reduction but got no response. Right now I just want to be done with this because it’s too much to handle.— Tri⁷ (@triloveskoo) March 6, 2022
Earlier, a petition was filed with the Supreme Court requesting the cancellation of board exams, but the SC had rejected the plea, claiming that such pleas give false hope to students. This plea is unwise and premature. The authorities have yet to decide on the rules and dates. If the decision is not in accordance with the rules, it is open to appeal.”
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