If we talk about higher education in Bihar, there is already a slowdown in the system with rusted policies and outdated staffing. There have been no major changes to what students are dealing with at Universities in Bihar during this pandemic. The other state universities’ performance may have slowed during the Coronavirus pandemic, but this is an everyday scenario for universities of Bihar.
University education in Bihar has already been on the back-burner for long. The lockdown and pandemic are not the real challenges, but they have certainly become valid excuses behind the delay in academic sessions this year. However, Bihar has often made it to the news time and again for the same reason.
Many students who manage to secure jobs in top companies after passing competitive exams couldn’t join on time and lost those opportunities. All their hard work went in the drain, and they remain helpless. This is the story of Bihar which no one ever focuses on.
Now, in this current pandemic, the situation is far worse than earlier.
The universities’ departments and faculties are not compatible enough to manage online classes for students. The online classes are going on, but they are of no use to most students. So students don’t exactly benefit from joining these classes. Many traditional universities were not even conducting online classes, and their students are just dependent on paid courses.
Coronavirus has become an excuse for delayed exams, which isn’t exactly a new problem in universities in Bihar. The students are now worried about a year’s delay in the session and whether they will get their degrees in 2021 or not. Many are waiting for their final year courses to be over so that they can take up further studies or apply for jobs. While a six-month delay was common for the universities, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic has just added to the worries of students.
The universities have never used the allocated funds for student welfare, and the officials often mismanage these funds. Cashing in on the chaos created by the pandemic, universities are now charging fees from the students instead of actually doing something to help the students in this hour.
There are lakhs of students study in traditional universities and colleges, and many of them have no access to technology to attend online classes. The teaching-learning process with mobile phones is not so productive, and even the teaching quality is not so compatible with learning online. This whole exercise of ‘online teaching’ seems to be a way to meet set targets to add to the government reports that will be prepared later showing that students were given classes.
Many colleges and universities across the country are preparing to conduct or have conducted online exams for their students. However, Bihar Universities seem to have no such plans. They can easily manage online exams for students, but they are not doing so and waiting for the pandemic to get over. The UGC has ordered universities to conducts exams for final year students by September 30. They seem to be ready to take the risk of conducting exams offline but not online as per UGC guidelines.
The students are compelled to put a hold on their career. There is already a job crisis going on in the country. Many students who were supposed to graduate by June 2020 are still waiting and losing their confidence. The University could have easily conducted online exams, but they are not taking any further action and waiting for this situation to get over without them having to do anything!