Students in Pangi, Bharmour trek mountains to take online exams

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chamba, December 9

Online examinations being conducted by the Education Department in government schools are proving a nightmare for students of tribal areas of Chamba district. Students of far-flung areas, such as Bharmour and Pangi, have to climb hills and sit in the open to get better signal on their phones to appear in the examinations.

Surjit Kumar, a resident of Pangi valley, said many areas of the valley did not receive any telecom signal. The BSNL tower in the area had developed snag while the tower of private companies were yet to be made operational. Generally, there were signal issues so the students moved to hill tops to get signal and appear in examinations.

Inquiries by The Tribune revealed that the Education Department was conducting interim examinations these days for students of government schools to prepare them for final examinations.

Sources here said the education board had suggested to the Education Department that students of tribal areas be delivered the examinations papers at their door steps. However, the suggestion was not heeded to by the authorities concerned.

In Chamba, students of Balod, Khundel, Kaned, Ghal, Tundah, Kugti and Bargram panchayats in Bharmour and Pangi areas are giving examinations by climbing mountain tops and sitting in the open. Area residents had also given a representation to Chamba Deputy Commissioner DC Rana in this regard.

The DC said he would direct the Education Department authorities to help out the students of tribal areas and ensure that they are not forced to move to hill tops to appear in the examinations.

The restrictions put in place on schools due to Covid have acted as a disadvantage to the students living in far-flung areas, who have not been able to attend online classes due to poor internet connectivity in their region. Leaders of opposition parties have also demanded that the state government should make proper arrangement and ensure that students in tribal areas do not lose an academic year.