A PIL petition seeking deferment of SSC annual exams, which had begun on Thursday in the State, in the backdrop of rising number of COVID-19 cases was filed in Telangana High Court.
Faculty member in a private educational institute M. Bala Krishna requested the HC to declare conducting the SSC exams by the authorities as illegal and arbitrary. He asked the court to pass interim direction to postpone the exams since the COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and taking into consideration the advisories issued by the Centre.
Already, the Central boards of ICSE and CBSE had postponed their exams following advisories from the Health Department. The petitioner maintained that on one hand the Telangana government declared holidays for educational institutions but on the other was conducting SSC exams for which thousands of students would be appearing.
Normally, examination halls and rooms would be cramped. It would be difficult for the organisers to maintain the mandatory one metre gap between two persons (in this case students writing exams) to avoid contacting coronavirus, the petitioner contended. Considerable number of the students would be using public transport mode like buses to reach examination halls.
Since the SSC exams are the stepping stones for future, no student showing symptoms of COVID-19 would desist from appearing the exam. This would only contribute to the possible spread of coronavirus, the petitioner said. He maintained that he personally visited some exam centres only to realise that sufficient safeguards and precautions were not taken by the authorities.
The mandatory wearing of masks by the students and invigilators and providing sanitisers at the exam centres was not being followed strictly, the petitioner said. No thermal screening arrangements were made at the exam halls. An inspection by the HC would reveal the inadequate arrangements, he stated.
He sought a direction to the authorities to ensure wearing of masks was followed and thermal screening was done at the exam centres.
