LAHORE: As the country is gradually turning to in-person examinations and on-campus classes, students are opposing the impending exams through road protests and online campaigns.

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood announced on Wednesday conducting all board examinations in person in the country.

Last week, the Punjab Boards Committee of Chairmen also announced a schedule for matric and intermediate examinations 2021.

Earlier, the National Command and Operation Centre announced allowing O and A levels exams across the country.

Later, the centre also announced the opening of educational institutions for matric and intermediate classes in the country and the provinces have resumed the educational activities in their respective areas from May 31.

Side by side, students are running a Twitter trend with hashtags #cancelboardexams2021 and #Shafqatmahmood.

One of the twitterites tweeted the picture, stating “Another topper student from (a private) college committed suicide due to exam pressure”.

Another tweet reads, “If the government is not ready to cancel the exam they can give appropriate time for preparation at least. To decrease the number of subjects is not the only solution”.

On May 30, students during a protest against exams in examination halls blocked the Indus Highway near Jampur. The police baton-charged the students to clear the road.

Students say that the schools and colleges could not complete courses online because of internet connectivity and untrained faculty issues.

Only very few private colleges and schools conduct online classes where the public sector stood clueless about any online class at any level.

One of the internet providers says that around 150 million people in the country have access to the internet and only they could attend online classes.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2021