Examinations at the University of Malta shall proceed as intended – majorly in-person on campus.
This decision has been taken despite the record-breaking surge in daily cases, despite the fact that online exams have been utilised in the past, and despite all student feedback.
Online exams do not promote cheating, they snuff them out through scanning each written page with plagiarism software. They were fully and successfully utilised in the past scholastic year when cases were much lower, so why not make use of tools already available?
This decision is a very short-sighted one. In-person examinations will definitely put many more households under mandatory quarantine – if contaminated students test positive.
Many students are already fearing missing an exam if they contract the virus. However, with PCR tests being as backlogged as they are, current plans are just asking for further disaster.
There is no point in thanking frontliners for all their hard work with stupid decisions like this.
Hundreds (if not thousands) of students live amongst vulnerable and immunocompromised people who can not afford to contract a virus as mild as COVID-19, even if recent variants have been seeming very tame. Deaths from COVID-19 have been rising with more cases (unsurprisingly), yet we are, for some reason, more concerned with letting students write pen on paper for 2 hours, then we are for taking care of ourselves and eventually seeing an end to this dreading pandemic.
Il-mewġ mhumiex fil-baħar, u żgur ma rbaħniex il-gwerra kontra COVID-19. Anzi, b’miżuri bħal dawn, qegħdin ninvitaw tkaxkira.
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Written by: Kyle Patrick Camillieri
A Bird's Eye View 