SHILLONG, April 14: In spite of an unrelenting surge in COVID-19 cases in Meghalaya, the state government is in no mood to impose another spell of lockdown.
On a day when the state recorded an alarming 100 fresh cases, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong made it clear that the question of lockdown does not arise.
Tynsong, however, mentioned that restrictions would be imposed by the government, adding that it has decided to hold two-three meetings each week to monitor the situation.
On Wednesday, the government held a review meeting on the pandemic situation and decided to go ahead with the MBoSE Class XII examinations as scheduled. The Class XII exams begin on April 16.
“The board exams will go ahead as scheduled and fixed by the Education department,” the deputy chief minister added.
With regard to the SSLC (Class X) examinations starting on April 19, Tynsong said that Additional Chief Secretary, Education, DP Wahlang would meet all stakeholders to take a final call on the matter.
The government has issued instructions to the Education department to ensure that each and every examination centre in the state follows COVID-19 protocols and SOPs, he said, adding, “We request the parents and students not to harbour any doubts and go to the examination centre happily and safely.”
The state government has also decided to reactivate the committees headed by deputy commissioners and BDOs to fight the pandemic.
DEMAND FOR
ONLINE EXAMS
Aggrieved over the growing number of COVID-19 cases, a large number of students who are set to appear in the SSLC and HSSLC examinations have petitioned the Education Minister to either postpone the exams or conduct the exams through online mode.
“We are not in the right frame of mind to appear in the Board examinations, especially the offline mode, due to the surge in cases in the state,” the students wrote in a letter submitted to Rymbui on Wednesday evening.
According to the students, they are not able to focus over fears that they might contract the virus if they go to the examination centres to write their papers.
“We have seen your statement that any student who is infected with COVID-19 during the examinations will be given an opportunity to reappear the papers at a later stage. But what will happen if any of us get seriously ill or die?” they questioned.
Questioning the online mode of classes conducted in 2020, the students said that they were not benefitted by online teaching. “Our preparations have not been upto the mark since we did not have regular classes last year. Therefore, we request the government to either postpone the examinations or conduct online tests,” the students added.
When contacted, one of the signatories of the letter informed that they were yet to receive any response from the Education Minister.
According to her, the students have created two WhatsApp groups to allow other candidates to join the campaign against offline exams and nearly 4,000 students have registered so far.