Amid restrictions imposed due to Covid pandemic...
DESAM, PTFC-19 denounce conduct of JNV entrance test
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 13 2021: The Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) and People's Task Force for Covid-19 (PTFC-19) have strongly denounced the conduct of JNV entrance examination for admission to Class VI on August 11 by flouting Covid appropriate behaviour.

The bodies charged that the State Government and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti should be held responsible in case a Covid outbreak emerges as detection of one Covid positive case among students who appeared for the test has been reported.

DESAM, in a statement, said those involved in conducting the entrance test without adhering to Covid SOP should be booked and punished.

The student body has been urging all concerned to postpone the examination in view of the prevailing grim situation in the State, it said.

The entrance exam was however conducted as scheduled putting lives of many students at risk and depriving educational rights of many intending students who are confined due to containment measures imposed in their respective areas, it said while condemning the forceful nature of the JNV Samiti and naivety of the State Government who has to toe the line of the authority.

Why the Government had imposed lockdown and curfew if the situation is conducive to allow conduct of an entrance test which was attended by more than 20 thousand students, asked the student body.

How are little students supposed to strictly follow Covid appropriate behaviour when even adults fail to do so, DESAM further asked while asserting that the measures, efforts and expenditure the Government has put in so far has been wasted by allowing the conduct of the entrance test.

While adding that JNV School Principals should also be held responsible for the ill-timed test, DESAM also ridiculed the examination body for fixing the entrance time at a time when the State has been battling the pandemic while the same examination was postponed on multiple occasions considering inclement situation in other parts of mainland India.

The State recorded 1327 positive cases and 15 deaths the day the Ministry of Education announced the exam date and 753 cases and 14 deaths on August 3, the day the Home Department approved the examination, it said.

Asking what the State Government was trying to prove by letting the said entrance test go ahead during such a critical time while Class X and XII examinations which were scheduled when the situation was not much severe were cancelled, DESAM further questioned whether the entrance test was more important than Class X and XII examinations.

Maintaining that the Government's act was totally uncalled for, DESAM also urged the State Government to take up immediate measures to ensure safety of all students and invigilators who shared the same room with the Covid positive candidate.

PTFC-19, in a separate press release also expressed anguish over the 'untimely entrance test' and maintained that the State Government and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti should be held responsible if the test trigger another Covid outbreak among students who are not yet vaccinated against Covid.

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