On Thursday, the Tribhuvan University published routines for the stalled exams of first and second years of various bachelor’s level programmes.

A notice issued by the Office of the Controller of Examinations states that bachelor second year’s exams will start from July 20 and first year exams (old batch) from July 25. According to the notice all the exams will be held in person.

Although the exams are a month away, students are still concerned whether the exams will actually be conducted on the scheduled date as they had been postponed earlier citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Swastika Shrestha, a second year student of Bachelor of Social Work from Kathmandu, said the university’s plan to conduct the exams in person may fail any time.

“Even last time our exam was scheduled nearly after a year but it was postponed due to the rise in Covid-19 cases,” said Shrestha. “The university should have learnt from the past but they are still insisting on holding in-person exams which could fail at any time as the pandemic is still here.”

The final exams of various disciplines and programmes at the country’s oldest and largest university have been delayed by over a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, subsequent restrictions in movement and the university’s insistence on holding the exams in physical presence of students.

While other universities including Kathmandu University, Pokhara University and Agriculture and Forestry University, have conducted the exams virtually, the Tribhuvan University does not have any plans to conduct the exams online.

When asked about the possibility of conducting the exams online, Shiva Lal Bhusal, rector of the university said it is impossible to conduct the exams virtually as many of the students were unable even to fill up the online form, so they surely cannot take examinations online.

“The number of examinees is very high so it would be difficult to monitor them online and in lack of proper monitoring the validity of online exams could come under question so we are conducting the exams in person,” said Bhusal.

The university administration though has shifted the teaching-learning activities to virtual medium amid the pandemic.

Kriti Dangal, 20, a first year Bachelor in Social Work student in Kathmandu, regrets joining the Tribhuvan University.

“If I had joined other universities for my bachelor studies, I would have nearly completed my second year exams. But here they are planning to conduct the first year exams after nearly 19 months and I am still not sure whether the exams will be conducted as per the newly announced schedule,” said Dangal.

“If they can teach us in online class why can’t they conduct exams online?” questioned Dangal.

When the Post asked Rector Bhusal if the new exam schedule also could be affected if Covid-19 cases surged again, he said decisions will be made accordingly.

“We decided to conduct exams physically because the Covid cases are on the decline,” said Bhusal.“If cases rise again, the university will hold emergency meetings and make necessary decisions.”

However, according to health experts, the situation has not come under control yet, so any sort of gathering is risky until and unless the government vaccinates everyone or they figure out what is the possible reason for cases decline.

“Though the covid-19 cases are on the decline, the risk has not gone yet because we don’t know the reason behind the decline,” said Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, a virologist at Teku Hospital. “If the cases have slowed down due to a break in the chain of transmission as a result of the restrictions on movement and gatherings, then they could soar again if gatherings are allowed. Even those who were not infected could catch infection.”

Until and unless, government vaccinates everyone, the risk will remain the same, he added.

The daily Covid-19 cases have been coming down after peaking on May 11 when the country confirmed a record 9,317 new infections. On April 29, when the prohibitory orders were imposed in the Valley, 4,831 cases had been reported countrywide.

On Sunday, the daily new infection numbers in the country had come down to 1,353 with 34 fatalities.

The Tribhuvan University, which has 1,124 affiliate and 61 constituent colleges, is the largest university in the country with over 400,000 regular students. The number of examinees, however, exceeds 500,000 as there are students sitting exams for back papers. The university runs 125 programmes in the bachelor’s and the master’s levels.