Protesting The Exams
2020 has been a most difficult year for the students. Academics was disrupted. End semester/year exams are yet to be held in most of the universities. Even qualifying exams like the NEET and JEE were postponed several times. Both teachers and students suddenly found themselves in an Online world with no training either to teach or learn. The double whammy of pandemic and floods has had some grave consequences. Both, those who were looking to study in professional colleges and those who were looking for a meaningful employment, were left to rue their luck. When finally, a decision came to hold these exams, neither covid nor the floods had subsided. The students naturally protested for yet another postponement amid the uncertainties, reaching the courts in the process.
If the exams were held in an environment of inadequate infrastructure and mistrust, they would do no good to anybody. If they are not held or postponed inordinately, the students stand to lose a year. A true Hobson’s choice. Are these nationwide protests demanding cancellation of NEET and JEE exams justified then? Yes and No seem to be the response of most of the people.
‘Yes’, from a student’s perspective since there are genuine concerns of safety. The government may take care of the in-class environment. Would it able to guarantee effective transportation, and assure safety outside the class room? Covid cases have not even peaked yet. Though there is relief in the strict lockdown rules, the situation on the ground is far from normal. The fear of infections still rules the minds, all over the country. Examinations and Assessments must promise a fair opportunity to everyone. If that cannot be assured why hold them? The entire dynamics of assessment and declaration of results is a massive process. Then comes an elaborate admissions process. ‘No’ since several students especially from urban localities, would feel understandably peeved as they would look at it as a possible loss of a year.
Should the Government then postpone the exams? Rather than discuss postponing the exams, alternatives must be explored. A certain data normalizing algorithm could be used on XII scores which then could be used for admissions this year. In a Min-Max Normalization of data, linear transformation is performed on the original data. Minimum and maximum value from data is fetched and each value is replaced according to a formula. At least a year could be saved if this is done. One has to weigh the available options both in terms of risks and benefits.
What may happen if examinations are conducted this year? We know the havoc the rains played in several States. Unfortunately, the mayhem continues. The Northeast floods have been devastating. Yes, if everything goes right, the exams could provide a fair opportunity to all concerned. However, since the examinations are sought to be held in uncertain times, they may prove heavily in favour of urban students. Rural students may be severely disadvantaged since the boundary conditions are not the same for both the groups. It could even result in several students unable to reach the exam centres either because of poor transportation or none at all. Besides there is always a risk of students falling sick during the pandemic which may not be notified or reported for fear of missing out on exams. This may actually cause wider spread of the pandemic.
Having seen both sides of the argument, are there solutions/remedies for the government and the students? There are not one, but three options if only we would be open, caring and discerning for it is not as if the pandemic had given no notice.
For one, NEET and JEE can be planned to be held online. Availability of devices and bandwidth in certain areas may be far from satisfactory. That is where services of BSNL, NIC and other agencies should be taken. The government must reach sanitised mobile vans with PC’s and smart devices and access points to all remote locations that lack connectivity, or have no PC’s or smart phones. Further, if a maximum throughput and minimal interference is required for conduct of nationwide exams, channels 1, 6, and 11 in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band are the best choices. This is just what the doctor ordered to connect remote locations.
Online examination and assessment solutions are customisable, scalable, secure and are feature rich. They have anti cheating technologies built in, that allow AI based proctoring, human based proctoring with live and recorded monitoring of exams, secure browsers that disable websites and software and allow candidate authentication that verifies through OTP, e mail and ID proof. Their services should be taken. The best part is that the assessments can be completed almost on the fly, where result processing takes only a couple of days. Only a crisis tests the mettle of everyone including the government. We have a government that is strong in mettle and in commitment too.
There are multiple State Boards who use different bench-marks and assessment methodologies leading to a common argument that the students cannot be compared on a common scale. Hence common tests across the country. Though this has been the practice, the pandemic has severely restricted it forcing a rethink that gets us to the second option of using data normalisation algorithms on XII marks of different State Boards that can become the filter for admissions. The method has been used in several cases including Covid data mapping across countries with success.
If this be still not convincing since XII performance represents a single dimension, a third possibility emerges where an average of X and XII marks or even a set percentage of each is taken and averaged, followed by a data normalisation process. Numerous options by varying the percentages would be a bonus. A best fit percentage could also be explored that is student centric.
It is being argued that NEET and JEE must happen this time round, since it had been postponed twice already and that if admissions to Medical colleges and the IIT’s are delayed, they then affect other admissions in the country. The argument lacks substance. Why must IIT admissions be completed before the rest when hardly 2% of the student population join IIT’s? Don’t we know that 2461 students dropped out of IIT’s in last two years? Even after ‘JEE-Main’ are held with success, JEE Advanced would still remain to be completed. When would we complete all other admissions this year across the country then?
A larger debate would then be whether we really need these tests for making admissions to professional colleges when we have other tried and tested alternatives. Besides, when even NEP lays a great emphasis on autonomy for institutions as a step to quality, why push everyone onto a common testing ground? We not only need to be innovative in these uncertain times, but practical too.
