-Dipta Joshi

The Mumbai police arrested Vikas Fhatak aka Hindustani Bhau (February 1) for instigating class X and XII students to protest against holding offline board exams amid the COVID pandemic. On Monday (January 31) several cities in the state, including Mumbai, saw students gathering in large numbers demanding the forthcoming board exams for the academic year 2021-22 either be conducted online or canceled altogether.

Maharashtra has 18 lakh students writing the class X exams and another 14 lakh writing the class XII exams for the academic year 2021-22. The class X exams are scheduled for March 15 and class XII are slated for March 4 onwards. This year the government has already announced both class X and class XII exams will be conducted using pen and paper.  

Fhatak, a social media influencer who claims to be ‘fighting to get justice for the youth’ allegedly uploaded several belligerent videos threatening major protests unless the government gave in to students’ demands. His January 29 video asked students to join him to protest outside the education minister, Varsha Gaikwad’s Dharavi residence in Mumbai.

While the student gatherings at Pune, Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Akola and Jalgaon remained peaceful, it turned violent in Mumbai and Nagpur as students damaged private and police vehicles. The police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowds consisting of mostly under-18 youth. While Fhatak will spend the next three days in prison, the police have also registered first information reports (FIRs) against the students.  

Fhatak continued to post social media videos of the unruly crowd at Dharavi however, he refused to take responsibility for the 1500 minors who gathered at his behest despite the state’s COVID protocols forbidding crowds.

“While we don’t approve of such violent demonstrations, I hold education minister Varsha Gaikwad responsible for it. She has turned a blind eye to the plight of the state board students. Why didn’t the state board follow the policy of the CBSE to conduct the board exam in two parts in one academic session. This would ensure that students appear for at least one exam even if the academic session cannot be completed in a regular manner due to the pandemic. It would also be less stress for the students,” says Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, President, India Wide Parents Association.

Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson, Maharashtra Principals Association says the state government has little option but to hold physical exams this year. “Maharashtra will have to hold written exams since we don’t have the wherewithal to conduct online exams for the 32-lakh class X and class XII students who will write the forthcoming exams. Also in the absence of the 2020-21 exams, this year,  schools and colleges have no reliable past data to fall back on while evaluating students based on their past performance,” says Ganpule.  

Sudam Kumbhar, education counsellor states, “The education department had already made it clear that exams would be held in the pen and paper format. This should have ensured the students take the exams seriously. Besides, there is no reason why the exams should be conducted online. Students appearing for the exams are in the age group 15-18 and eligible for vaccination. The state government has already set up standard operating procedures (SOPs) and is likely to announce further safety measures.”

The state government’s plan to reopen schools and colleges in the state in a phase-wise manner last July onwards hit several roadblocks as the state reported the highest number of COVID and Omicron cases in the country  by January 2022. Schools in rural areas that reported negligible COVID cases resumed physical classes in July itself. However, schools and colleges in urban areas continued to remain shut until November in the wake of rising Corona cases.

Parent associations are of the opinion that students would be at a disadvantage in the forthcoming exams since learning was online for most of the year. However, Maharashtra’s state board schools want exams to be conducted offline. The schools claim they have not only completed the prescribed syllabus, but also conducted the pre-board exams smoothly.

The education minister has been in discussions regarding the students’ protest. Even as the state government remains unwilling to reconsider its decision to hold offline exams, it has assured students of keeping a watch on the COVID situation in the state. A decision to defer the exams will be announced after February 15. With exams scheduled for March 4 and 15, changes if any, may be a little too late for the already jittery students.

Also read: 

Maharashtra: Students protest, demand online SSC & HSC exams

Police lathi charge at Bangalore University after protest, several injured