This year of 2020 has been a very challenging year for the world, in every aspect. No living been on the planet today, has ever experienced such a calamity thrust on the humanity for over 100 years.

Education is the key to the future of the world. The bright young children and youth in the schools and colleges, who will be leading the world tomorrow have suffered immensely during these COVID times. The challenges the teachers are facing to be as impactful over the virtual classrooms as they usually are in regular classrooms, the schools trying to facilitate, the parents within their means creating the conducive learning environment at home with technology et al, while children are giving their best to cope with such unforeseen situation. I have been involved deeply in a project to facilitate the state education systems to make this happen, and I know the immense challenges every one has been facing.

While the regular classes have been impacted, none more than the students in the transition years. The students who are graduating from schools who wished to get into the university, higher education institutions have been impacted severely. Those who were to appear in the entrance exams in the months of March-April-May are still struggling with every entrance exam postponed umpteen times in the last 5 months.

The nation cannot afford to have a zero year.. Imagine one year of a nation, no students graduating, no doctors to recruit, no engineers to recruit…. while millions are superannuating from services, who will replace them that year…. So the process has to be done at any cost, with minimal damage..

The challenges fpr the students include –

• Repeated postponement of the exams, the uncertainty of their conduct – including the fear of whether they will lose the entire year.
• Maintaining their focus and momentum of preparation – The preparations reach the crescendo a couple of peaks before the exams with the aspirants getting into that mode of taking the exam with all the preparation that they have been doing for years.
• The stress it has induced on students and their families – the repeated deferments of the exam dates upsets the mental and physical state of the youngsters

Then the challenges of the institutions –

• The fear of when they will be able to conduct the exams, complete the selection process for admissions for the academic year
• How to manage the academic year with almost a third of the academic year already gone by
• How will they help the students to manage the stress of squeezed academic year that may have higher intensity of academic pressure with packed classes and vacations eliminated

Then the challenges faced by the govt

• Will it be conducive to hold the exams in the midst of the pandemic
• How to conduct the exams in such a manner that the safety and security of every child is taken care of
• what all precautions to be taken at the centres
• With rains and floods around the country, will it be a disadvantage to the disadvantaged…

In the midst of all such questions there are suits and counter suits flying in the supreme court! Every party in the suit is approaching the issue from one of the above perspective – children, institution and government. Of course all are concerned about the safety and security of the child or youth who is getting impacted…

This episode on Zee business is about the cases in the supreme court on the issue of conduct of IIT-JEE….

Hope soon the exams get conducted and the institutions be able to start the academic year at least by November. It at least takes a couple of months for the institutions to start the classes after the conducting the exams – the process of getting the results out, the counseling process, allocation of the programmes and institutions, the formalities of final admissions etc….

Wishing all the students the very best…