Should Indian educational institutes break norms in Covid times?

Amid the ongoing pandemic where simply existing has become a challenge, India’s Gen Z is fighting another battle. A country with the largest population of youth; has miserably failed them, leaving them hopeless.

Ever since the pandemic began back in 2020, education has merely become a hoax. With schools and colleges shut, the entire youth had to switch from offline to online mode of classes; where there is always a rush to compensate for the lost time. Every student comes from a different background, belonging both to rural and urban areas. Not everyone has the resources to study in online classes; students do not have access to a good network, strong Wi-Fi, mobile phones, laptops, computers; some of them do not even have a peaceful environment to study at home. Yet, students somehow manage with the classes. But the real problem arises when the institutions ask students to appear for exams at a time when COVID-19 is wreaking havoc across the world.

In the past year, Indian institutions have clearly shown how the only thing that matters to them is marks over students’ lives. Many colleges and universities conducted both online and offline exams in the previous year, risking the lives of thousands of students. But this year, the situation is far from normal. Every second person is either suffering from the virus or has someone in the family suffering from the same. To quote a psychologist, Seema Hingorrany, “Young people are numb and in shock with what they’re seeing. They’ve never witnessed this level of death before.” Yet, children are looking after their families, struggling to arrange beds and oxygen cylinders for their loved ones, grieving over the loss of people they knew, losing family members; and in the entire process, their mental health has been destroyed. According to a survey conducted recently, 61% of people in India, aged between 18-35 are suffering from various sorts of mental problems. There has been a sudden increase in cases of clinical depression. 70% of the youth have been having sleeping disorders. The pandemic has led to youth facing experiences of grief, loss, anger, frustration, guilt, stress from death, and destruction caused by the second wave.

With all that is going around, it is a shame how Indian institutions are blinded to the sufferings of their students. It is high time we break these educational norms of judging a student’s knowledge only based on exams and marks. This year, exams should be canceled keeping in mind two factors:-

1. most of the students do not have access to resources and

2. psychological problems.

Students should be promoted based on their past performance instead of being burdened with never-ending assignments and deadlines. Online classes can never be equivalent to offline classes so when students have not been taught properly, it is unfair to ask them to sit for exams to evaluate their performance. India's Gen Z is graduating in a struggling economy with minimum job opportunities due to covid and have very little hope for a better future. Therefore, Indian institutions need to rethink their assessment strategy and be a bit more flexible in such tough times.

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