High-stake exams

Exams are potentially super spreader events as Nepal stares at a third wave.

Exams are more important than lives. This is the message from Tribhuvan University, the country’s oldest and largest hub of academia, as students of master’s and bachelor’s level exams protest against in-person exams citing health concerns amid increasing Covid-19 risks driven by more contagious Delta variants of the coronavirus. The students, university officials must realise, are not wrong to demand a postponement or alternative assessments. There have been reports about exam centres not following health safety protocols. Students have posted videos of crowded exam centres on social media to draw the attention of the press and concerned authorities. But the outcry has largely been ignored by officials and the government, which continues to risk people’s lives.