The number of coronavirus cases in Mumbai are growing at such an alarming rate that it has already surpassed New York city in new number of cases.
Pujan Patel, a TYBcom student of KC college in Mumbai who was chiefly involved in the “Nation With NaMo movement says, “Everyday, more than 1000 cases are found in Mumbai, and even the CM has put his hands in the air and said “Brace for the worst” in the city. Even in such times, some groups are lobbying for Mumbai University to conduct the exams, that too in July when the cases are predicted to peak! July also is the month when the monsoon hampers the normal movement of people around the city.”
He further says, “How can students be expected to take their exams in such time? Most students have to travel a lot, mostly by local trains to reach their colleges and the condition of our local trains are well known across the world. How are the students supposed to practice Social Distancing while travelling in local trains.
Taking the case of France, where students took exams with full precautions are safety measures, still 1 infected student ended up infecting 70 others. Now when we compare that with the number of students in Mumbai University, that’s just going to a big multiple of it! There are hundreds of thousands of people who would have to give the exam and very high chances that around 1000-2000 students getting the virus.
These students can also infect their family unknowingly. It would be really unfortunate if anything like this happens. This can be avoided if petty politics are kept aside and Mumbai University decides to take student’s opinion rather than only consulting unions and ministers.”
Hyderabad University has cancelled the final year exams and also given permission to students for re-appearing for the exams if they feel their grades are not satisfactory.
Mr. Uday Samant, Minister of State for higher and technical education put out a facebook post where he asked for the opinion of students. Almost all of the students commented in favour of cancellation of exams, but Mumbai University has still not made a decision.
The ministry had earlier said that exams will be conducted in July, but have neither given an explanation nor given any roadmap for conducting the examination.
