Following the Karnataka government announcing that the state Common Entrance Test (CET) exam, would be held as scheduled, student organisations have responded by strongly condemning the decision. KCET is an entrance exam written by students who have completed their class 12 or 2nd PU to be eligible for getting admitted into undergraduate engineering, pharma, agriculture, veterinary and technology programmes in Karnataka. They have been scheduled to be held at the end of the month, while the government has allowed for asymptomatic COVID-positive students to write the exam.
In a statement, The All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) condemned the government decision to go ahead with the exams even as the pandemic is underway in full swing.
“The state government, while disdaining the popular peoples' demand to 'Postpone Karnataka CET', has unilaterally decided to conduct the exam as decided earlier, on July 30 and 31st. The All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) Karnataka State committee in its strongest word condemns this anti- student decision of the government.”
A survey conducted by the organisation showed that out of 4,557 responses from PU students, who are scheduled to take the exams, a whopping 96.9% percent said that the Karnataka CET exams should be postponed.
“From past many days students across state had been protesting to postpone CET. AIDSO had conducted a survey among PU (pre-university) students, the students have expressed worry about their own and their family’s life. While the pandemic is rising in bounds and leaps, the uniform demand of the students, teachers, and parents was to postpone Karnataka CET. But the government has acted exactly opposite to it. The government has taken decision in the interest of private management lobby,” the statement alleged.
Students and educationists have been trending the hashtag #postponeKCET on Twitter over the past week.
Does the gOvernment live under a rock??!!
— Srushti G Shetty (@SrushtiGShetty1) July 19, 2020
Do u STILL wana risk it by conducting EXAMS??@drashwathcn #postponekcet2020 #postponekcet pic.twitter.com/1eMTdrNGL7
What games did you play during quarantine? Ludo? Pubg?
— Amulya Srinivas (@AmulyaSrinivas6) July 19, 2020
Man,you're not competent enough.
Our Government is a big time gamer, playing with over 1.8lakh families.#postponekcet2020
#postponekarnatakaCET #postponekcet2020#StudentLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/o2aSX5f9Xi
— AIDSO Karnataka (@KarnatakaAidso) July 19, 2020
Karnataka has seen an increasing number of coronavirus cases being reported in the state, with no signs of abating. The Chief Minister Yediyurappa has announced that there would be no more lockdowns anywhere in the state as the economy was suffering. As per the latest bulletin of July 22, there were 4,764 new cases of the coronavirus in Karnataka, taking the total reported cases in the state to 75,833. There are 47,069 active cases of coronavirus currently.