It has been under my observation that during recent days there has been an ongoing debate regarding the conduction of examinations for students, especially the UG 6th and PG 2nd & 4th semester students. I myself being a student, currently pursuing Masters in economics, final year, my thoughts and opinion on the said matter has been in quandary. In this current state of great uncertainty where every decision has an unpredictable outcome, my support on the decision made to proceed ahead with the conduction of examinations has been indecisive or so to say I’m currently 50-50 per cent on it. Before I proceed on to give my reasonings and insight on the matter, I would like to state that this is simply by humble outlook on the matter and that I do not ploy to force people to agree with my personal view. I believe that very person has the right to have their own opinion and can agree to disagree on my outlook.
As a student myself, but above all as a human being myself I genuinely understand as to why some party of people or students’ are in panic and unsettled regarding the decision made, looking at the current scenario of the unfortunate increase in the cases with every passing day, the risk involved in reopening the institutions is very high. Especially when we are dealing with the youths, the generation on which our future depends upon. It is also with no doubt that everybody values their own life, no person would want to die from the virus while appearing the exam. The same applies for me as well, a little part of me does not wish to appear the exam due to the risk involved and I believe that not appearing the exams would give some students’ the ‘temporary joy’ to hold their Masters or Bachelor’s degree certificate which will be attained with little to no effort or without gaining knowledge. I’m always highly strung with regard to the decision made to proceed on with the exams and like everyone else I also do not wish to die in the bargain. The worries of our parents and family are very understandable as well.
But, at the same time we, whom the society considers as educated young minds, not only should we complain and cry about the decision made but, we also ought to invest our time into functioning our brains and ponder as to why such a huge decision has been undertaken by the concerned authority for the students’ community. We also ought to look at the bigger picture, our future and the consequences of being promoted without exams. At such crucial times it is natural that one’s first thought on promoting the students’ without examinations would be fine or probably the best possible solution. But, in my personal view it is not the best step due to various reasons. First and foremost, which I consider the most important reason is that, being promoted without exams would simply imply that we, the students will be graduating with limited knowledge or without obtaining education. Particularly the final year’s which I consider as the most pivotal part of any learning stage, I also find this quite as a huge loss for the students especially after investing all the time, finance and early efforts only to be promoted with a “grace degree certificate” in the final stage as a student. We must realise that promoting the students’ without imparting proper knowledge or efforts or exams will by no means effect the authority/institutes/teachers, they have absolutely nothing to lose rather it is us, the students’ who will be losing and the consequences of it will fall upon us. Education is one of the most important aspects for a prosperous economy & society and it will be very sad if the youths, .i.e. the caretakers of our future, graduate as empty vessels. Of course I believe that education is not only confined within the four walls, the whole world is an open learning place and a person can expand their knowledge and wisdom anywhere which can be regarded as receiving education, but we have to be realistic as well that we cannot deny the need of formal education, especially at the highest learning level. We must wake up to the fact that education is not a joke, degree levels are not something to be taken lightly.
It is also very sad and discouraging to see some fellow students in various social media celebrating over the news about getting promoted without exams or learning very little and those who are demanding the same for their own respective semesters. At the very least I had the notion that students will be sad about the loss of education in the process of the unchallenging promotion, I thought students would comment something like, “oh, how unfortunate that we are getting a pass like this, without learning. But if this is the only way then we have no choice” or “as unlucky as we can get, I hope there will be no such hindrance in our way of learning in the future”, etc. But, to my utter amusement it has been the complete opposite and though there will a party of people who are grieving or would have grieved about it if exams were canceled, it is sad to say that the platform has been flooded with the celebrating bunch. Now, this is important to be noted as it reflects our education system and the mentality of our naga students. I don’t know about what the vast majority thinks but it saddens me to see that our youths, students especially give very little to no care about education. The privilege of getting education is being taken for granted.
Furthermore, I believe that education is more than appearing examinations and passing out but we must look into our situation, the lockdown was imposed during the second week of March which is during the near start of a new semester. As per my knowledge at this time the syllabus for PG students’ at least was nowhere near completion and online classes which started off late in Nagaland provided very little help. Thus, conducting exams is the only way to learn something and impart knowledge because it is a known fact which no can deny that students went astray from learning and their books for the past few months. Currently, conduct of exam is literally the only way to bring students back to track and get in touch with their syllabus so that we can learn. Though a few classes before the exams will be favorable and will immensely benefit the students, it is unlikely to happen.
I surmise that we must also be very practical with the current situation because life and time will go on with or without corona. When we stop our activities due to the pandemic, it does not mean that life will wait for us until the virus is completely eradicated. We are still uncertain as to when the pandemic might come to an end, it might be with us for another year or two or perhaps it might end by December or worst it could go on for another three or more years. God forbid but if this happens, what will become of our education system? Will we still continue to keep promoting every batch without imparting education? If so, then it is quite alarming to think that our future leaders, doctors, teachers, engineers, business persons, etc who will most probably be the ones to look after our society will be a bunch of people with empty vessels due to being promoted time and again without acquiring proper knowledge/education. Can you and I say that it is safe entrust the future to these kinds of people? Little do we also realise that if we acquire a degree with zero effort, it will be of no value and society will never acknowledge the degree we which we might hold. I also doubt that few years from now, society will not be considerate of us, in pin- pointing us as “grace degree-certificate holders”, as ridiculous and harsh as it may sound this is the sad reality of our society. Did you and I ever bother to give time to think about it, if in case you acquire the certificate now without hard work, will you be proud of yourself? Do you wish to simply receive the certificate with no effort for temporary joy and stress relief or do you wish to receive the degree certificate and leave the institute along with education and your knowledge expanded? Have you ever considered that all your life you’ve been a student and now when you are at the highest and most crucial stage of learning as a student, do you simply wish to get an easy pass just like that? I believe that we must consider thinking well and twice and taking into consideration not of short-term benefits but of long-term benefits before demanding anything, be it exams or no exams.
The risk is indeed high but we also have got to learn to live smart with the virus as declared by WHO and also the CM of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal during his recent press release. As scared as we are, we also need courage to live on, a society can never step forward or develop without taking risk. We can’t stay indoors forever even if the virus continues to exist, once we graduate or not we have to hunt for jobs and make a living by utilising whatever inputs we have acquired during our days as a pupil, we simply cannot economically depend up on our parents forever. Time is impartial, it waits for no one. In addition to it, since this matter of examination is concerned with the final year UG and both PG semester students I believe that we are all matured enough to be careful and follow the norms of social distancing while the exams are being conducted, as we are very well aware of the current scenario. Thus, I encourage my fellow students not to be discouraged with the decision made even though we are not made of detol. Instead let us prepare ourselves mentally as well, for one of the toughest examinations in our entire life as a student. As nerve-wrecking as it may be, let us try to have faith that the decision made by the concerned authority was not made impulsively. Believing that they intellectuals who have well calculated and planned out everything properly, .i.e. the protocols to be followed for the safety of the students during the entire conduct of examinations. But, if in case the situation gets uglier, I believe that the concerned authority will rethink their decision or conduct the exams whenever it deems the safest to do so.
This is again written simply from my perspective on the mentioned issue. It does not necessarily mean that my views are right and should be accepted by everyone. It will contradict some people and that is fine as long as we respect each other’s point of view.
Süyievelü Venuh
M.A Economics, 4th Sem.
Nagaland University, Lumami