MARGAO
Goa Forward Party president Vijai Sardesai has on Friday told representatives of students from various colleges that holding final exams online is a viable and feasible option to keep students, teachers and families across Goa safe and secure.
In the meeting with the students, Sardesai pointed out that his team would look to review the 160-page verdict of the Supreme Court over final exams which noted that “States are empowered under the Disaster Management Act to override University Grants Commission (UGC) exam guidelines in order to protect human lives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Sardesai said that Goa’s R-rate or COVID-19 positivity rate is currently at 5.29% which poses immense risk to the students and their families “ and is not the right conditions to hold offline exams. He questioned the government’s priorities in regard to safeguarding the lives of Goa’s children in response to the Supreme Court verdict.
Sardesai further said that the Goa State Disaster Management Authority, and the government did not hold any public consultations with student bodies over the examination process, nor reasonably explain or outline its intentions. “The government simply jumped to the conclusion that it is safe to hold offline exams.”
The Goa Forward Party President said that the government is still not conducting COVID-19 tests across the state at an optimum level and is driving a false narrative that “Goa is a green zone and is safe.”
He added: “like the ongoing issues in Mollem over double tracking, the students and youth of Goa are facing a massive injustice, while no-one seems to be stepping up to even listen to them.”
Sardesai also mentioned that he had spoken to the registrar of Goa University and urged him to hold online exams at any cost.
Sardesai lambasted at the government for lacking the common sense given that Goa’s COVID-19 positivity rate hovers above 5%.
