DESAM against JNV test on Aug 11
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 30 2021:
Though the Union Ministry of Education has fixed August 11 for conducting selection test for admission to class VI in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) for the academic session 2021, Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) has said that it would be dangerous for Manipur to hold the selection test on the said date in view of the present COVID-19 situation.
Expressing concern over the new date fixed for the JNV selection test, DESAM urged the government of Manipur to intervene immediately and take up necessary action for conducting the selection test when situation of the pandemic improves and reschedule the same for the entire North East region.
According to a DESAM statement issued by its publicity & propaganda secretary Sh Rishikumar, the Ministry of Education took the decision of conducting selection test for admission to class vi in JNV in June, 2021 while taking into consideration of situation in mainland India only and never considered the COVID-19 situation in Manipur and other NE states.
Selection test was earlier scheduled on April 10 last but postponed to May 16 .
While taking the decision for postponement, COVID-19 situation in mainland Indian states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kerala were considered.
During that time, only few places in Manipur were declared containment zones and virus situation in the state was better than those in mainland states.
However, the present virus situation in Manipur is far worse than the mainland states and more than 1000 positive cases are reported daily.
Apart from this, total curfew is being imposed in the whole of Manipur at present, DESAM pointed out.
According to DESAM, the total number of students who have registered for appearing in the selection test for admission in 11 JNV schools of the state is around 21,000 students, who are the age group of 10-11 years only.
For every 20 students, where will be one invigilator and students would be accompanying their parents to the examination centres and hence it would be dangerous for parents, staff and students to gather together, DESAM said, while adding that even class X and class XII examinations were cancelled in view of the present COVID-19 situation.