Following the extension of lockdown till May 17, 2020, students and teachers of Mumbai are worried about delay in paper assessment while, the working youth fear their careers being jeopardised due to non-payment of salaries.
All major exams, entrance tests and aptitude tests for educational programmes at all levels will now be halted for another two weeks as Mumbai is in the red zone due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to this extension, teachers of state and private schools revealed they cannot complete assessment of answer papers of Class 10 and 12 board exams.
Manish Solanki, a teacher of a state-run school, said, "We cannot commute to schools to correct answer papers of Class 10 board examinations which were conducted in March."
While, Raj Aloni, principal of a CBSE board school, said, "We used to manually check answer papers in assessment centres. But due to this extension of lockdown, we will not be able to check answer papers till May 17.
The state should permit teachers to commute to assessment centres or the board should allow teachers to assess from home in order to any avoid delay in result declaration."
The pending exams of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will be postponed further. Gerry Arathoon, Secretary of CISCE, said, "We will announce the schedule of the revised dates for the pending exams of Class 10 (ICSE) and Class 12 (ISC) subject to the lockdown directives of the central government."
On the other hand, working youth of the city are facing a financial crunch due to non-payment of salaries since two months and loss of jobs. Suyog Naik, an event manager, said, "My company has not paid me since March because there are no events being hosted. How am I supposed to manage my daily expenses in Mumbai?" While Tasmeen Quereshi, a makeup artist said, "My beauty salon is shut due to the lockdown. I cannot even work from home as it is not possible in my field of work. I am scared that I might lose my job if this lockdown continues."
