Ahead of the 5th edition of 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' on April 1, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that the event will help "boost the self-confidence" of the students after the exams were affected during the two years of COVID-19 pandemic in the country and sought the "support of all the stakeholders" of society.
Addressing a press conference here, Pradhan said, "The 5th edition of 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' will be held on 1st April 2022. This participatory outreach program will have PM Modi interact with exam (board) aspirants (students). Keeping COVID restrictions in mind, only one thousand students of Delhi NCR, UP, and Haryana are invited to the programme. The Pariksha Pe Charcha will help boost the self-confidence of the students, especially the new generation. I seek the support of all the stakeholders of society, especially youngsters, students, parents and teachers."
Highlighting the impact of the pandemic on the exams, the Minister said that it compelled the exams to be conducted in the online mode, however, the exams "should be conducted under the invigilation" since the COVID situation in the country is proceeding towards normalcy.
"There is a dialogue between the students and the Prime Minister. Its importance has increased this time. In the post-Corona phase, exams will be held. We were compelled to make exams online and sometimes offline in the past two years due to the impact of COVID-19. But it is the notion of the educational experts that the exams should be conducted under invigilation. The situation is proceeding towards normalcy due to the cooperation of society and vaccination," he said.
"All educational institutions, all the medical colleges functioning under the Health Ministry, Nursing schools, other educational institutions run under the Central government and the educational institutions run in their partnership in the states. The Pariksha Pe Charcha event will be organised in all of such places," the Minister added.
Pradhan further informed that he has written a letter to the Chief Ministers and Governors as part of the outreach efforts for the event and hoped that every state will participate.
"In the next one or two days, we will reach out to the Chief Ministerial and Ministerial levels. The Secretary is contacting the states on the administrative level on part of the bureaucracy. I have written to the Chief Ministers and the Governors on the matter. We believe that all the states will participate," he said.
Asked if the West Bengal government has responded to the Minister's letter, he said, "I believe all the state governments should respond to it. What problem can one have with this? I expect everyone's response."
The Minister also informed that the students will be brought to the Governor's House in the states and the event will be streamed live.
The Prime Minister had conceptualized the unique interactive programme in which students, parents, teachers across the nation and also from overseas interact with him to discuss and overcome the stress emerging out of examinations.
An online creative writing competition was conducted in December-January to select participants. Around 15.7 lakh participants had registered for the creative writing competition.
'Pariksha Pe Charcha' has been organized successfully for the last four years by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education. The first three editions of Pariksha Pe Charcha were held in New Delhi in a town-hall interactive format. The fourth edition was held online on April 17, 2021.
( With inputs from ANI )
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