Known for its inept handling of the Covid-19 crisis ever since it broke out, the Gujarat Government is now unable to decide whether to continue offline classes and exams at higher education institutions.
Result? Hapless students across medical colleges in the State are being forced to sit physically at examination halls. Yes, even they have contracted the dreaded Covid-19 virus.
The Baroda Medical College run by the MS University is a shocking case in point.
A terse notice to the students leaves nothing to the imagination:
“Every student has to appear for the exam compulsorily. Those students who have tested positive for Covid and have completed 7 days since (a) positive report have to sit along with the regular batch division. Those who have recently tested positive (not completed 7 days since testing positive) have to sit in Lecture Hall D.
Regular Seating Arrangements and Division will be provided soon. The venues are Main Lecture Hall C and Alumni Examination Hall.”
It is commonly known and officially advised by the State Government that Covid-19 patients have to be isolated for at least 14 days, this notice says if you are carrying a Covid-19 positive certificate for 7 days you must sit with non-infected students.
More surprisingly, those who have been diagnosed as carriers of the virus for less than seven days must also come out of their isolation and sit for the exams. Needless to say, all students have to prepare for the exams — Covid or no Covid.
Little gainsaying here that the faculty of the medical college is expected to know what it means to play with the virus. For the record, Gujarat has added a mind-boggling 45,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last seven days alone with close to 10,000 cases reported during the last 24 hours as of Wednesday evening.
As many as 250 students appeared for their first exam, Paper 1, offline. There are still three more exams to go. An uninfected student told Vibes of India, pleading anonymity, that, “Eight students who appeared for the exams were Covid-19 positive and sat in Lecture Hall D.”
When Vibes of India reached out to the Dean of Baroda Medical College, Dr Tanuja B Javadekar, she outrightly denied the presence of Covid-19 positive students at the examination halls. “There were no students who were Covid-19 positive. If the students are positive, we isolate them. We follow the instructions given from the top (the Gujarat Government),” she said.
Claiming that other medical colleges in the State are also holding the exams, Javadekar cited the instance of “the Rajkot Medical College which is also conducting examinations.”
Students of the Baroda Medical College were given the schedule for their preliminary examinations in mid-October much ahead of the spurt in Covid-19 cases that has now assumed the proportions of a third wave.
(Vibes of India could not reach any official in the Gujarat Government until late. The story will be updated once an official version from the government is available.)
