Greta Thunberg has opposed the Centre’s decision to conduct a series of important examinations in India despite the coronavirus pandemic. The Swedish child activist took to Twitter and said, “It’s deeply unfair that students of India are asked to sit national exams during the Covid-19 pandemic and while millions have also been impacted by the extreme floods. I stand with their call to postpone JEE, NEET in Covid.”
It’s deeply unfair that students of India are asked to sit national exams during the Covid-19 pandemic and while millions have also been impacted by the extreme floods. I stand with their call to #PostponeJEE_NEETinCOVID
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 25, 2020
Students from different parts of India have been quite vocal in opposing the conduction of examinations such as the NEET and the JEE entrance examinations amid such exceptional times and have been demanding that such examinations be postponed. Recently the Supreme Court of India dismissed the plea for postponing the exams stating that the National Testing Agency (the body which is responsible for conducting these examinations)has already taken all the precautionary measures. The Supreme Court had also said that postponing these crucial examinations would put the lives and careers of so many students in India in jeopardy and thus it was best to conduct these exams as per the schedule. More than 24 lakh students will be appearing for the JEE and the NEET exams for admission to the undergraduate engineering courses that will start from September 1 onward. On the other hand, NEET is an exam that is conducted to choose candidates for the medical profession and is scheduled to be conducted on September 13.
Many scholars and academics in the country are of the opinion that postponing the exams can lead to the loss of academic opportunities and career prospects of thousands of students and therefore these exams should be conducted as per the schedule. On the other hand, political leaders like AAP’s Manish Sisodhia have said that we should look for an alternative way of conducting such exams and move beyond the narrow approach. He has also said that we should look for alternative ways to conduct such exams in such times where the pandemic has been taking a toll on the lives of people throughout the world.
