The Goa government’s decision to hold the Class 10 & 12 exams from May 21 is a perilous decision that will put nearly all of us in harm’s way. Hasty decisions have been made and then overturned even faster leading to confusion and panic. The initial few days of lockdown, when we all stayed locked in without essential items and paramilitary forces around street corners are a stark memory of how ineffective decision making affects us. Despite this, we have all stood as one with the State government and cooperated to make sure we defeat COVID-19. The threat of a COVID-19 outbreak isn’t over and with every fallacy of our government, we are being pushed into the clutches of this deadly virus.
Playing with the lives of children and seriously threatening the spread of community transmission amongst Goenkars is condemnable. While the world is actively following social distancing measures and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has made it clear that schools should stay shut, it is difficult to fathom why the CM is toying with such a foolhardy idea. While Goa University exams can be pushed to a later date, what is the rush in conducting board exams? It is shameful that parents have to knock on the Court’s door for protecting the lives of their children in such times. While it is obvious that this is the most inopportune time to hold exams, our government doesn’t seem to think so. We had a golden corridor to hold the exams between the time that Goa was declared a Green Zone and the influx of people from other States and countries. Ineffective administration kept the CM from taking a decision at that time.
Every waking day we learn or rather unlearn what we thought was the pattern of the virus. Asymptomatic carriers are a plenty and they may not even know it, the virus is spreading faster than we are catching up to it. How do we know that one of the children attending the exam hasn’t been infected through people coming from outside Goa? Multiple people travelled on trains along with COVID-19 positive patients, and there is a possibility that they might have contracted the disease now. For that matter, the bus drivers and conductors ferrying the students could have been infected and it is so easy for another outbreak to occur. One of the teachers or examiners, who have been selflessly serving in household surveys could be an asymptomatic carrier. There could be so many ways of the infection spreading in this second wave and it is unfathomable that we are willing to expose our children, the most vulnerable among us. Not just our children, but teachers, parents, the common man and entire neighbourhoods will be at risk if we enter the phase of community transmission. In the last three days, the number of active cases has jumped to 41.
In this scenario, it is impossible to conduct exams in a completely sanitised manner. Anyone who believes otherwise is irresponsible and reckless or living in an alternate reality. My son is in 10th grade and I too want the exams to be over quickly but not at the risk of my son’s life. With a heavy heart I ask, what good is the exam whose results might not be in a marksheet but in the number of body bags? My dear Goenkars, I am not raising this issue with our Chief Minister as a politician but as a parent just like any one of you. I am just a father appealing to the leader of my State to be democratic and considerate.
(The writer is an Independent MLA)
