Two weeks after the government’s decision to postpone the grade 12 exams over Covid-19 fears, a parliamentary committee on Tuesday directed the government to conduct the exams in person without delay.

The parliamentary committee on Health and Education said it was wrong to postpone the grade 12 tests while all other exams were going on smoothly. The National Examinations Board, following the directives of the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) and the Education Ministry, had postponed the grade 12 exams indefinitely on August 7, citing Covid-19 risks.

The exams were originally scheduled for May before they were postponed to August 15.

The decision to postpone the exams was made after hundreds of students and others concerned took to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to express their displeasure over the government’s plan to conduct in-person exams. They had called on the authorities to either cancel, postpone or find alternative ways to conduct the exams.

“It was wrong on the part of the CCMC and the Education Ministry to postpone the exams,” said committee chair Jayapuri Gharti. “The committee has directed the government to immediately conduct the exams after administering Covid-19 vaccines to the students and by maintaining health and safety protocols.”

The committee has concluded that further delaying the exams will hamper the academic calendar and the students could lose an entire year.

While the grade 12 exams were postponed, college-level exams under the Tribhuvan University were not.

Last year, the grade 12 exams were held in November and the results were published two months later, in January-end. In normal times, the grade 12 results are published by October.

Meanwhile, some examinees have said that there was no point postponing the exams in the first place if the board is to conduct the exams in person.

“The threat of Covid-19 is still prevalent. If we have to sit for in-person exams now, the earlier postponements were just a waste of time,” Bhesh Raj Upadhyay, a grade 12 student from Vishwa Niketan School, Tripureshwar, told the Post. “It’s necessary to conduct the test as early as possible but through a virtual medium.”

There are 374,000 grade 12 students across the country.

The parliamentary committee has asked the government to administer Covid-19 vaccines to all students aged 18 years and above who are appearing in their final exams. But a large number of twelfth graders have not reached 18 yet.

“Students who haven’t got the vaccines are asking us if they can take the tests,” Narayan Gautam, acting principal at Padmodaya School, told the Post. “If the in-person tests are to be held, those who haven’t been inoculated will be at risk.”

Education experts say while the concerns of the parliamentary committee about the loss of the academic session is valid, it should have recommended the government to opt for virtual exams.

They say though a year and a half have passed since the pandemic, the government hasn’t made any significant investment to increase internet access and improve information technology.

“The instruction of the parliamentary committee to conduct in-person tests means there is no pressure on the government to invest in increasing internet connectivity,” Binay Kusiyait, a professor at Tribhuvan University, told the Post. “The parliamentary committee must be sensitive to the health risks of the students.”