The State government's decision to cancel the SSC examination conducted by the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education must be welcomed given the grim Covid scenario and questions over the safety of students. The debate that rages now is whether the decision is unfair on those who toiled hard to pursue better scores right through the academic year and whether non-performers were given an easy way out. In all fairness, the threat to the lives of students at this juncture far outweighs the scores, and hence opting for internal assessment is a prudent move.
There cannot be a gamble with the lives of students at this stage when the second wave is snuffing out lives daily and a harsher third wave is believed to be on the horizon. Those advocating against internal assessment must stop their hypocrisy. We may recall the decision to hold exams last year was slammed too, despite the protocol that was put in place.
The current Covid situation is far worse than that of May 2020 with deaths piling on despite restrictions being in force. Villages have gone into voluntary shutdown mode and the situation ahead remains very hazy. States like Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, J&K and Tamil Nadu have already cancelled their SSC exams and have settled for internal assessment while a decision is yet to be arrived at on the 12th standard exams.
While the decision to cancel the exams must be respected, the failure to set up a blueprint to carry education forward must be condemned. Teaching and careers have been hit hard because the online teaching system collapsed and the State constantly forced to switch between online-offline modes. Over a year later, nothing has changed and logistics continue to remain crippled. We are moving into another academic year very shortly, but students and teachers will be grappling with the same set of issues.
Cancelling exams and opting for internal assessment is a temporary measure to tide over the current situation. But what’s next? There is a major infrastructural failure that has been left unattended for one full year. Online education continues to be out of bounds for large sections of students, while the State government is contemplating pursuing the National Education Policy in 2021. Students in rural Goa have suffered the most during the pandemic, and the year ahead won’t be any different because Covid is threatening to grow bigger with subsequent waves.
While the government has settled for an internal assessment of SSC students, it must look within and undertake an internal assessment of its education sector to facilitate learning amid these testing times. We can’t wait for the Covid storm to pass by, because it’s here to stay, probably longer than we expected. The Bombay High Court in Maharashtra rightly pointed out “in the name of the pandemic we cannot spoil the careers and future of children”. If ‘living with the invisible enemy’ is the way forward, then government must chart out a new course on education.
