It is bad enough that NEET has caused a number of issues already from students undergoing immense stress and rushing for crash courses to their parents having to cough up thousand of rupees for these courses to having to travel far and wide to even find a centre. One might think that the students have seen enough but no, those students wearing long sleeved shirts, tops and kurtas were asked to cut off their sleeves.
An awkward Sneha (name changed) who had just finished the exam kept trying to cover her hands with her dupatta to hide her torn sleeves, "We were given all kinds of instructions but nobody said anything about clothes. My sleeves were only till my elbow, they weren't even full sleeves and they made me cut it off," she said, clearly close to tears.
"Faces just fell"
A parent from Cuddalore whose daughter had come to write the exam said that she made sure that they arrived early to avoid any last minute problems," So many kids kept getting sent out for one thing or the other, either they missed out a signature or they were wearing something wrong, I kept getting worried that my daughter might have to come out and go back in for something, but nothing happened. But it was upsetting to see the other children," she said.
The parent, who did not want to be named said that the students whose clothes were being cut looked extremely flustered and embarrassed, "Some girls did not know that they had to remove their nose-rings, they had to stand outside and remove all that but getting their clothes cut was more demeaning. Their faces just changed, already they are under so much stress, on top of all that they had to face this just before going in for the exam. Imagine their state of mind."
While some had to take off their shirts in the middle of the street, others stood still as an adult cut it off while they wore it. A number of students leaving the exam centre could be seen with their shirts cut, some did not mind like Dhanush Raj from Tambaram, "I wasn't informed about the rule so I wore long sleeves, then they told me they need to cut it off, so I said okay."
As expected many of the state board students complained that the syllabus was too tough for them, "State Board syllabus is ten years behind when compared to CBSE, so obviously the paper was difficult. All sections were difficult particularly Physics and Chemistry but Biology was a little better because we're familiar with the terms," said a student from Pudukottai.
"My daughter studied in CBSE till tenth but then she said she might not be able to get a high rank if she continued in CBSE so we switched to State board and then they brought in NEET. Completely unexpected," said a parent from Chennai.
Almost as if it was confirmed that many of the students might not make the cut, a number of volunteers from various coaching centres across the city kept shoving pamphlets into the hands of students and their parents. Students might come back for a second attempt but some students like Sneha might think twice about it after all this humiliation.
When did exams get more important than providing dignity to our students?
