Conducting examinations in India: Emergency, contention and challenges of students amidst covid-19 pandemic

Highlights

• •Exams emergency amidst covid-19 pandemic has created a contention among government, exam authorities and students in India.
• •The paper presents challenges and problems faced by students while preparing exams and appearing in the exam centres.
• •The paper finds no concrete attempt of negotiation from government to deal student’s concern.
• •Safety measures taken by government and exam authorities are inadequate.

Abstract

The paper examines ‘exam emergency’ in India through an engaging dialogue of importance, dissension, and contention over conducting all the annual entrance examinations amidst this covid-19 pandemic that have been postponed earlier due to nationwide lockdown. Drawing on the pre-exam living experiences, this paper presents the challenges and problems of student communities and the insecurities of their mental and physical health risks while they are preparing and appearing for their scheduled entrance tests. The paper finds no concrete attempt of negotiations from the authorities to channel majoritarian concerns. The lack of preparation from government and exam authorities to facilitate students in this crisis period has finally made many to fail writing their exam papers and left them behind with unfulfilled dreams.

1. Introduction

In the last few weeks if any news repeatedly makes into headlines in the country’s mediascape, is the debate on conducting annual entrance exams amidst this covid-19 pandemic. As India is approaching ‘new normal’ unlocking successive phases of lockdown, debates are getting high over the crisis in public health infrastructure, economy, and mental health among other serious issues that have not even left education out of the desk. The closure of educational institutes across the country ensuring safety measures among students in such health disasters has made an incomparable impact on education (Rashid & Yadav, 2020). This has led the conventional teaching–learning process to stop and left the future of millions of students into question. A recent UNESCO (2020) report shows how severally education sector is affected across the nations. It reveals that in India only over 32 crores students are hampered due to nationwide lockdown and other restrictions, and at the global level, this number has already crossed 157 crores amongst 191 countries.

Given this situation to check the learning gap, many have compelled to switch on to ‘virtual education’ using online platforms that increasingly getting importance as an alternative to ‘face-to-face’ classroom teaching (Martinez, 2020), while others are still struggling to adopt the technicalities and accessibilities of virtual education (Apte, 2020, Kundu, 2020, Lau et al., 2020). The ongoing educational crisis thus not only brings us possible alternatives but also informs our inabilities, infrastructural insufficiency. Within these difficulties with low infrastructural exposures and highest health risks at a time when India is breaking records every day with the highest daily corona positive cases in the world, a controversy has emerged over conducting the final exams at educational institutes. Millions of students along with their parents, political leaders, and activists were demanding to adjourn final exams during this pandemic. However, the government’s firm stand on conducting exams in the given dates has created a serious contention among the stakeholders across the country and informed an emergent situation in the current discourse of education over ongoing ‘exam emergency’.

Therefore, within the large context of the educational crisis in the country amidst such a disastrous situation, the paper examines ‘exams emergency’ taking, in particular, all annual ‘entrance examinations’ into consideration. It first unfolds overall debate providing the arguments placed by both the authorities and students and presents the challenges of students during this crisis period. Based on the observations from the narratives that appeared in the media images, it is argued that the government’s un-negotiable attitude not only has surpassed the majoritarian voice of aspirants but has forced them, leaving no options to sit in exams and putting their mental and physical health at risks of their own. The study highlights, first how students are perceiving exam emergency, second how traumatic it is/was for preparing for exams while dealing with the uncertainties and fear, third government’s preparedness for taking measures to ensure the safety of student’s health in their respective exam centres.

2. Methodology

The study utilised an explorative qualitative research approach (Binder et al., 2012), is based on qualitative data collected from both primary and secondary sources. To substantiate the arguments raised in the paper, various empirical evidence and information collected from secondary sources, such as various national and regional newspaper articles and other media sources.

Primary data is collected conducting a short-term survey over telephone keeping in mind government guidelines to maintain social distancing. Nearly 30 aspirants of various ‘entrance examination’ that includes Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) for engineering courses, National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses, National Eligibility Test (NET), and other public central universities admission test like Banaras Hindu University Entrance Test (BHU-PET) and Delhi University Entrance Test (DUET), are taken for in-depth interviews. Many of their parents are also consulted to record their views. All these interviews are conducted using a semi-structured interview schedule, from 3 to 7 September 2020. The survey used random and snowball sampling techniques.

Aspirants were asked various questions, broadly regarding their respective entrance test, with some specific themes, such as views regarding government’s decision, preparation for the test, living experience with uncertainties, dilemma and covid fear, plan for approaching exam centres etc. among others. Data is analysed using narrative analysis techniques and finally presented in form of narratives.

3. Unfolding the dialogues of emergency and contention over conducting exams

Are taking exams more important than life despite the high risk of exposure to corona infection? Or should students be passed without exams?

The whole dialogue over the controversy of exam emergency on conducting entrance exams for various institutes in these pandemic days took place in regards to these two particular questions, which has led to reveal an emerging serious concern in the current scenario of education pandemic in India.

3.1. ‘Corona degree cannot be issued’

In India new academic sessions generally start from July-August after all the semester exams end roughly from April to June. This year due to lockdown, the academic session has already been delayed. Final exams are still pending, new admissions yet to start. Since further delay would lead to zero session, the education ministry is convinced to conduct exams. Indian central government is now planning to re-open all the educational institutions once all the examination and evaluation process of enrolled students get over. UGC, a key agency that holds all responsibilities for higher education in India, has already issued a directive on July 8 mentioning final year examinations are compulsory (UGC, 2020). The directive mandates all universities to conduct all pending exams by the end of September, giving them choices for either offline, online, or blended mood whatever they find most suitable to take exams.

As per UGC, a degree without exams cannot be given, as this could undermine a student’s “professional credibility” (Kumar, 2020). UGC’s vice chairman Bhushan Pradhan in an interview, reported in the same article in Outlook replied

“It may appear as the best way of awarding degrees today as its easy routes, but it will put the future of students at stake. Mark sheets and transcriptions have to be issued, mentioning that average marking was done. And, degrees awarded to student in such a manner will always be known as ‘corona degrees’ for the rest of their life”

Many have argued that assessment could be done based on student’s previous semester’s performances or internal marks or any other ways without any exams. Tough this way possibility remains that many students would feel deprived, UGC seems unconvinced. Former UGC Chairman Ved Prakash explained (cited in Kumar, 2020) “if a degree is awarded average marking, a student who has been toiling hard to improved his performance, scores and grading will be deprived (of a fair assessment)”.

3.2. Entrance exams crisis

In this distress situation of uncertainties, the most relevant question that has led the contention into fire amongst the stakeholders is that how the admission process would be conducted in those institutions where entrance test is compulsory and admission is strictly based on the performances made on the test.

Over seven million students are expected to appear in various annual entrance exams for admission in many courses among India’s prestigious institutions that include IITs, AIIMs, and other technical and medical institutions along with various reputed central universities, all are lined up to be held in September (see Table 1 ). As these entrance exams cannot be given from sitting at home and demand students to be presented physically in the allotted exam centres, it throws questions over the legitimacy of conducting exams in these pandemic times. Students have high chances to be exposed to the virus and how would govt. address health risks to such a huge number of students. Surprisingly past experiences have revealed a big question that justifies student’s concern for their health risk. Many important entrance exams have already been conducted in the states of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh during this peak covid times at the end of July and August. Shocking news reported that students have shown covid-19 positive symptoms just after they wrote their exam papers. In Kerala, 5 students have already shown positive symptoms after they come back home from exam centres.1

Table 1.

Details of some entrance examinations.

Name of Entrance Exams	No. of Applicants	No. of Exam Centres	Scheduled Dates
UP B.Ed. Joint Entrance	4.32 lakhs	1089	9 august
Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET)	1.75 lakhs	497	30–31 July
JEE Main	9.53 lakhs	660	1–6 July
Banaras Hindu University Entrance Exam	5.25 lakhs	Around 200	24 August- 14 Sept.
Delhi University Entrance Test (DUET)	2.2 lakhs	24	6–11 Sept.
NEET	15.97 lakhs	3843	13 Sept.
University of Hyderabad Entrance Test	68,000	38	24–26 Sept.
Common Law Aptitude Test (CLAT)	77,000	67	28 Sept.
Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Test (JNUEE)	1.35 lakhs	127	5-8 October

Source: Compiled by Authors from various News Article Reports.

Now when these students, which are millions in number will appear for exams how they can be assured that same would not happen again. Unfortunately, if any wrong happens who would be responsible for driving student’s life at risk, made students and their parents worried about.

3.3. Student unrest and virtual protests

India is now burning high on the heap of corona infection with more than 84 thousand positive cases and 1 thousand death reports daily and a total of 40.04 lakh cases until 6 September (MoHFW, 2020). To oppose the government and NTA’s decision, students start protesting on virtual platforms to maintain social distancing and covid protocols. Almost 5000 students participated in a virtual strike against conducting exams during these pandemic time in their homes2 (see Image 1 ). Social media platforms flooded with boycott exams call. Twitter has seen a storm with hashtags, #SATYAGRAH_against_exams, #BOYCOTT_exams.

Image 1.

Students are on hunger strike in protest against examinations in pandemic. Source: Mandhani, 2020. Accessed from https://theprint.in/judiciary/sc-order-on-neet-jee-fails-to-secure-safety-right-to-life-of-students-6-ministers-plea/490867/

Measuring the crisis over the risk of health safety and other concerns many academicians, public figures, distinguished parsons have supported student’s demands and requested to the government and UGC to recall their decision. Political leaders from the oppositions and other parties joined and backed the student’s protest. Even Subramanian Swami, a leader and MP from BJP has also opposed govt.’s decision. This comes even more shocking when he warned the Modi government comparing this move to the notorious ‘Nasbandi’ (sterilization) during the Indira Gandhi regime. He twitted on 24 August,3

“If our Modi Government goes through imposing the NEET/JEE exam now it will be the giant mistake like Nasbandi in 1976 that caused the undoing of Indira government in 1977. Indian voters may suffer silently but have long memories”

The unbreakable move of govt. finally made students go to Supreme Court to intervene. Following this, 11 students across 11 states filled a petition asking for further postpone of scheduled exams. However, the Supreme Court on 28th August dismissed student’s petitions stating “ultimately life has to go on and the career of the students cannot be put on peril for long and a full academic year cannot be wasted”.

4. Findings and discussion

4.1. Majorities do not want exams on the scheduled dates

The irrevocable attitude of the union government, education ministry and authorities responsible for conducting annual admission tests savagely suppressed the majoritarian voice of exam aspirants and remain un-negotiated. This has happened because of an illogical argument supporting the imaginary ‘silent majority’ surpassing the real ‘vocal majority’. Most of the aspirants across the country are against the idea of sitting exams in this peak covid-19 pandemic times. They don’t want exams to be held on scheduled dates issued by National Testing Agency (NTA). A survey data among 5500 students by a Mumbai based college has revealed that “93% of students don’t want exams during the pandemic”, (Rao, 2020). Another study in the state of Karnataka among 12,000 students by All India Democratic Students Organisations (AIDSO) informed that almost 90% of students were against the state’s Common Entrance Test4 . The test allows admission to engineering, medical, professional along with general courses in the state’s all educational institutes, though conducted already in 30th and 31st July overlooking students’ interest.

Authorities still seem unaccepted and unheard of. This however made more chaos after the union education minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal’s argument of ‘silent majority’ came into light. He stressed the majority of aspirants want exams because a record number of admit cards, almost 17 lakhs have been downloaded in just one day. So now, if the numbers matter only and downloading admit cards justify a student’s willingness for sitting exam in such a crisis then the government should have also taken a nationwide poll asking students to put their choices. The result would have added more clarity over the number concerned. It is noticed during interviews that many respondents find this argument as an absurd take. Priya Sarkar, a NEET aspirant said the minister’s statement is totally unacceptable because downloading admit cards can never be judged to showcase student’s willingness. Such an attempt never assures any surety for the presence in exam centres.

“We (aspirants) download admit cards before the scheduled date not to show our willingness to sit exams, but to check where we have been allotted centres so we can make arrangements accordingly”.

To mention one of the utmost reasons behind such disagreement is the fear of covid-19 and high risks of exposure to this deadly infectious virus that is letting students stand against the date schedule. As informed by many of the respondents, they are opposing just to hold these delayed exams a little back further, for at least two months until daily cases are reduced or once after they get vaccinated.

“If exams are further being postponed up to November or till vaccine are available to the market, things would be easier for us (aspirants)”.

Moreover, the parents of examinees are even more concerned and worried about the health risks students might face at the exam centres or while reaching for centres. Many of them are not convinced to let their children out alone to study in any distant places. Sangita Roy, an aspirant of the BHU PG-Geography entrance exam from Siliguri informed during the interview that she had a longing to study at BHU. She was well prepared for the entrance test but finally had to leave her dream as her parents wouldn’t allow her to study in Banaras. They are scared and cannot take the risk to leave their daughter alone in an unknown city amidst this pandemic.

Adding to this, two Indian states, Bihar and Assam are enormously devastated by hazardous floods with many districts still underwater, affecting as many as 8 million people as per India Today report 5. Parts of Kerala, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra are also waterlogged due to floods. Analysis of media reports reveals that students from the mentioned states are in haphazard situations. Many have cited they lost books, reading materials and other belongings in floods, many informed poor internet connections.

Many district authorities as many as 340 of 753 in India under various state governments implemented varying degrees of local lockdowns to bate the spreading rate of coronavirus (Mathew, 2020). Due to such local and regional lockdowns, public transport is not available in the required numbers. Manas Chandra, an entrance exam aspirant from Bihar raised his concern mentioning his village is flooded and he doesn’t have any centre nearby. BBC News report6 reveals his nearest exam centre is 90 km away, this made him worried whether he could afford to appear in the exam centre.

“How will I get to my centre? There is no public transport. And if I get infected who is going to be held responsible?”

Another important concern is that due to the closure of coaching centres most of the aspirants have come back to their villages and hometowns. Many have chosen exam centres close to their coaching centres. Now they are facing problems to go back to their places when train and road transportation is not sufficient and they would have more chance to get infected while travelling in mass. Mathew (2020) reports the problem of a girl, named Priya from a remote village in Assam

“Most of us have gone back to our villages. We are no longer near city centres. How do they expect us to travel amid lockdown? I come from a remote village in Assam. There are no exam centres close by. I will have to pay a substantial amount to reach my centre. Travelling will also increase the risk of the virus. The government does not seem to care. I don’t know if I can appear for my exams and the future seems bleak”.

It is noticed that Assam has only six centres for JEE exam for almost 13 thousand aspirants across the state. Other states of northeast India also have minimal centre choices against a good amount of entrance aspirant numbers. In such a situation when many areas are still flooded, public transport is insufficient and centres are not available nearby, aspirants find it hard to appear in their respective centres.

4.2. Dilemmas, difficulties and its impacts on exam preparation

There is no doubt that the students across the country from varying ages and backgrounds were in a long dilemma having not informed any surety for their respective exams. They were all unaware from March until August 18 after Supreme Court stumped on NTA’s date schedule. So far it is all known that all the delayed exams will be conducted and these will be taken on their given dates.

But the question remains, are the students mentally prepared for their exams in these hazardous moments? How it was to live with the uncertainties when no one knows when and how exams will be taken? How did students feel while preparing for exams dealing with covid fear and difficulties? Authorities seem to overlook these issues and problems faced by students. Due to lockdown and lack of clarity, students remain in constant pressure and stress that builds up anxiety and trauma and affect their level of performance. Recent media reports inform several incidents of suicide cases. An 18 years old JEE aspirant commit suicide failing to handle exam pressure and lack of preparation after being dismayed to know further postpone plea for the exam getting rejected. Another shocking incident from Tamil Nadu reports the suicide of 17 years old NEET aspirants failing to download her admit card. Karnataka college student ends his life after he failed in the exam.

During the primary survey when respondents were asked regarding their preparation, most of them almost 90% informed they are not mentally prepared. Many have cited exam dilemma and several difficulties they faced as major reasons. They told that they couldn’t concentrate on their study as there was no surety for conducting exams. According to a study by YourDOST (2020) 7 in the early period of lockdown finds “60 per cent Indian college students experiencing high to stress from the exam”. Another study by them through the lockdown period finds students are worst-hit mentally which reports “highest net deterioration in their emotions” (see Table 2 ).

Table 2.

Net impact on emotions of students through the lockdown.

Net impact in emotions through the lockdown	Anxiety/Fear/Worry	Anger/Irritability/Frustration	Hopelessness	Sadness	Loneliness/Boredom	Happiness
Proportion of students	+41%	+54%	+27%	+17%	+38%	−15%

Source: YourDOST Report on ‘Mental Health Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic & Nationwide Lockdown in India’, https://yourdost.com/lockdown-mental-health-study.

When students are not in a condition of mental stability and facing enormous difficulties ranging from stress, tension, anxiety, fear among mental health crises to the economic crisis, access to resources, teaching, etc. how they can mentally be prepared well. While interviewees were asked the above questions, they come up with their own stories of difficulties and living experiences regarding exam preparation. Priya Sarkar, who took coaching for her NEET exam from a coaching centre in Siliguri, informed her own story of facing difficulties. Due to lockdown when her coaching centre got closed, she had no options left apart from self-study. She stated about facing problems, especially in her practical courses. She holds the view that if her exam not get delayed and she sits for the exams in May, her performance would have been better. This long delay seems useless for her and doesn’t help her at all.

Poushali Halder, an aspirant for the upcoming NET exam from Siliguri, who studies in Banaras. Due to the sudden lockdown, she had to come back home hastily with all her belongings, books and reading materials left behind. She now doesn’t have anything with her to read out except online sources which she thinks inadequate for such highly competitive exams to prepare for.

“I have bought so many books for preparing NET, but all are left behind. I was so unaware and never thought this will take so long. Though I am preparing with online materials, all my resources are unused. If I had them with me, I would have been confident”.

A similar problem goes with another respondent, Mithun Roy, who is studying at the University of Delhi. He had left Delhi just two days before the lockdown was announced with no study materials in his hand. Lockdown was so sudden and the situation in Delhi was alarming that he had to come back to a safe place in his village in West Bengal. Both the stories reveal that though they had enough resources to study and prepare well, all were unutilised. They could not use the resources they have collected keeping in mind for this net exam and thus now in a position when they cannot be more confident.

Adding to this, another respondent said she had utilised this gap well. This has helped her to revise her syllabus. She has also informed that though she is well prepared but she doesn’t want exams to be held in September in this high covid time. She raised concern that there are so many who are in trouble and do not have enough preparation due to mental, physical and economic, or other difficulties. She said she does not want to perform well in her exams all alone.

4.3. Government’s inadequate measures and challenges of students

There is no surety that students wouldn’t be exposed to this contagious corona infection while they approach their exam centres and gather in large numbers. However to make students and their parents convinced and to check their health risks the government has assured that they will provide health safety. Following this, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has issued a guideline giving details for a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to conduct exams with various safety measures. The SOPs mandate from maintaining social distancing to disinfecting exam centres. From wearing face masks and hand gloves to checking out body temperature among many (NTA, 2020).

It is seen that the government is half prepared and their taken safety measures are not adequate at all. The NTA issued guideline have not mentioned any safety measures for parents and guardians of students who will be sitting for exams. Possibly students, especially girls would not come all alone travelling a distant journey. When they will write their papers, their parents and guardians will wait for outsides and of course, they will be in large numbers. NTA has made no mention of their safety and has left them at their peril to manage their safety in their own ways.

Back to student’s safety, all the safety measures, though inadequate are only confined in the exam centre. The guideline states the students will be allowed to enter the centre following social distancing and checking their body temperature with a tempo gun, followed by sanitizing exam halls and other measures. Many interviewees raised concerns that these steps wouldn’t assure any guarantee for their health safety. Priya mentions,

“If anyone takes paracetamol who has high temperature before entering the hall, there would be no validity for checking up temperature”.

Some of the respondents who have already given exams informed that when they were entering their centres every measure followed perfectly but when they were coming out after the exam, there was no follow-up from authorities. Students were not even maintaining social distancing. Parents who were waiting outside had to manage their own safety.

There is no provision to ensure any travel and accommodation facilities to those students whose centres are far from their places. Students had to face a tough time while reaching out to their centres. Many had to travel a long distance as they had no choice to select centres nearby. For JEE (Main), the number of centres was too low despite a huge number of aspirants that count almost 9.5 lakhs. NTA has increased only 90 extra centres across the country, from 570 to 660. This was undoubtedly inadequate. The ratio between the number of students and available centres shows more than 2000 in many states (see Table 3 ). For other exams especially central universities, this ratio is far beyond the imagination. Delhi University has arranged exams centres in only 24 cities for almost two lakh entrance aspirants. This reveals how difficult it was for students who had to travel a long way to appear for exam centres with a lack of transportation and accommodation which is still closed in most cities. Many had reported that they had to leave home too early so that they could reach exam centres on time. Media report follow-up reveals that in West Bengal due to heavy rain and lack of transport facilities students started early to reach their centres. Ropak’s experience reported in Hindustan Times shows he has started around 3:30 am and travelled almost 120 kms by his father’s bike from Ghatal in West Midnapore to reach his centre at Salt Lake in Kolkata (Thakur and Giri, 2020).

“There is no examination centre in West Midnapore. We had to take a detour along the route as some parts of Ghatal are flooded and two bridges on our usual route are now underwater. We had to start early to reach on time”

Table 3.

State-wise Distribution of Candidate and Examination Centres of JEE (Main) and NEET 2020.

State Name	JEE Main			NEET
	Candidates	Centres	Ratio	Candidates	Centres	Ratio
Andhra Pradesh	82,748	52	1591	61,892	151	410
Arunachal Pradesh	1234	4	309	3755	11	341
Assam	12,803	6	2134	30,311	81	374
Bihar	61,583	43	1432	78,960	192	411
Chhattisgarh	13,425	5	2685	31,940	82	390
Goa	1744	2	872	4595	15	306
Gujarat	38,507	32	1203	80,219	214	375
Haryana	24,763	16	1548	16,298	40	407
Himachal Pradesh	8397	11	763	11,264	35	322
Jammu & Kashmir	9868	16	617	34,760	99	351
Jharkhand	22,843	10	2284	21,112	36	586
Karnataka	43,894	33	1330	119,587	298	401
Kerala	45,047	64	704	115,959	322	360
Madhya Pradesh	47,493	26	1827	58,860	144	409
Maharashtra	110,313	74	1491	228,914	615	372
Manipur	1241	1	1241	6776	22	308
Meghalaya	988	1	988	3059	9	340
Mizoram	642	3	214	1741	5	348
Nagaland	1315	5	263	2542	7	363
Odisha	38,236	26	1471	37,459	83	451
Punjab	13,995	9	1555	16,300	28	582
Rajasthan	45,227	19	2380	108,537	269	403
Sikkim	302	1	302	894	2	447
Tamil Nadu	53,765	34	1581	117,990	238	496
Telangana	67,319	27	2493	55,800	112	498
Tripura	2711	2	1356	4157	11	378
Uttar Pradesh	100,706	66	1526	166,582	320	521
Uttarakhand	13,260	13	1020	18,958	43	441
West Bengal	37,973	15	2532	77,061	189	408
Total	953,473	660	1445	1,597,433	3842	416

Source: Compiled by Authors with data taken from National Testing Agency, https://www.nta.ac.in/Download/Notice/Notice_20200825163444.pdf.

Moreover, the lack of public transport facilities has led many to manage private vehicles hiring at a good cost. This has made many to blame the government for not ensuring transportation during the emergency.8

“I hired a private vehicle and paid Rs 1,500 for the day so that my daughter could write the exam”

In this situation those who could afford to manage, they had written exam paper and those could not, had to skip their exams. In our survey, those attend exams reported that the number of students in their respective centres was low. Because of transportation and accommodation problems many who come from distant areas were absent. Meghali Saha, an aspirant of the BHU entrance exam, who appeared the exam this year for the second time in Siliguri reported that in her exam centre number of candidates was enough less compared to last year. She said because of covid fear and lack of facilities candidates from other districts of North Bengal were absent this year. The same scene was seen everywhere in the state during other exams.

In every exam which was conducted so far, the drop-out rate of registered candidates was almost from 20% to 30% except some states which record almost 45% drop out rates (see Table 4 ). In West Bengal, the dropout rate for the JEE exam was recorded at 43% due to lack of transportations.9

Table 4.

Drop-Out Rates of Registered Candidates.

Exam Name	No. of Absentees	% of Drop Outs
Uttar Pradesh B.ed. Exam	74,203	17
Karnataka CET	47,000	24
JEE (Main)
First Day (B.Arch/B.Plan.)	50,881	45.33
Second Day (B.E./B.Tech.)	32,978	18.92
Third Day (B.E./B.Tech.)	30,704	17.86
Delhi University Entrance Test (DUET)
First Day	NA	30–35*

*As per the comment of Dean (Admission), University of Delhi.

Source: Compiled by Authors from various Newspaper reports.

5. Concluding remarks

As of now, many national-level entrance exams along with some State-level exams in Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh have already been conducted while others are waiting for their given dates to come. The admission process will start soon following the result of these entrance examinations. Accordingly, all educations institutes will be opened after new guidelines of ‘Unlock India’ given by the central ministry. The living experiences of students in the pre-exam phase due to covid woes, several difficulties and uncertainties will have a long impact on their physical and mental health. There is no doubt that millions of students are worried about their future which the government should look at and address urgently.

As seen from the discussion, when the call of majoritarian aspirants was against the given date schedule, there could have at least been a negotiation from the government side. Dialogue should have been made to resolute the conflict raised over this exam emergency. Many experts have given some alternatives like further postpone up to November and reducing the syllabus in the next semester or accomplish the syllabus gap with extra classes in online or offline mode. These could have been taken keeping in mind students’ interest. Other possible innovative alternatives could have also been searched. Still, if it is evident that taking entrance exams in this peak covid time is the last and utmost option except ‘zero session’, the government should have been well prepared beforehand. Not only safety measures but also transportation and accommodation security, along with more centre choices for every exam could have been given to students. The lack of preparation in this difficult time has led many students to skip out. They are stressed, worried and are in mental trauma. The future of such students who couldn’t attend their exam centres, remain unanswered.

The validity of such an exam emergency is now being questioned as it’s failing to ensure the attendance of the maximum number of aspirants to their respective tests. Government with half preparation has just assumed that they have taken care of students, saving their academic loss. The paper finally ends up with the above question to search for and call upon further research to investigate post-exam living experiences of aspirants who failed to write exam papers and are left behind with unfulfilled dreams.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial entity, or not-for-profit organization.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Bulton Roy: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing - original draft. Anamika Roy: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

The following are the Supplementary data to this article: