Challenges of conducting exams during COVID - 19 Pandemic

Radhika Bansal, Ground Report:

If you are a student, then you will be very well aware of the online classes and examinations been conducted by most of the schools and colleges during this time of the pandemic. Many students faced several kind of challenges while attending online lectures and classes. This includes bad network connection, lack of human connection, absence of opportunities of collaborative learning, teacher supervision, and the most glaring being lack of opportunities for hands-on learning in complex subjects such as science and mathematics.

It is very obvious that there are very few chance of reopening of schools and colleges amid this pandemic. But CBSE has said that it will conduct the remaining board examinations of 10^th and 12^th students in July.

So when the schools and colleges will conduct online examinations then also several challenges will be faced by both students as well as the teachers.

Let’s take a look at the challenge that can be faces in online as well as real examinations.

Challenges Which Can Be Faced During Online Examinations

• Students who live in remote areas or areas where connections are bad can face great difficulty in completing their exams on time or even appearing in it. This can affect their grades and performance.
• Students will have an upper hand in online examinations as they can easily take the help of the internet or the books. The main motive of assessing the knowledge of students will be lost in this process.
• Online examination process security is one of the critical challenges. Proper authentication, authorization process should be followed to ensure that the right candidate is appearing for the exam in a secure environment without any malpractices.

• Timely examinations can be bad. If in any circumstance, a school or college is conducting online examinations then they should give enough time to the students for the completion. Time should be set according to the level of questions. All the obstacles that can be faced by any students during online exams should also be considered before deciding the time. This way it will help the students a lot.
• Several government universities and schools have a lack of infrastructure and ‘practical problems’ so it would be very difficult for them to conduct online examinations.

Challenges Which Can Be Faced During Real Examinations

•  It will be hard for students to maintain social distance at all times.
• Several students as well as parents will be uncertain about them as they will be feared of getting coronavirus.

• Students who would be suffering from general cold and cough will suffer as they won’t be allowed inside the examination centers. This can take a toll on their careers.
• Lack of public transport can also be a challenge for the authorities as well as students in reaching the examination center on time.

Most of the college students are in favor that they should be promoted based on their internal assessment and previous semester performance. Let’s wait and see how these challenges can be overcome. Or universities will promote students without examination.

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