Experts who had an interaction with Telangana Governor, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on June 15 over combating COVID-19 called for postponing examinations, including medical post-graduate examinations.

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"Postpone examinations, including Medical PG, as life is more important than examinations," said a statement from Raj Bhavan, which listed out the suggestions that emerged from the interaction. The suggestion came two days after a junior doctor who tested positive for COVID-19 wrote to the Governor seeking her intervention regarding postponement of the final year exams for post graduates scheduled to be held between June 20 and 29. The junior doctor from the Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, is undergoing treatment along with many of his fellows medicos at the state-run Gandhi general hospital.

"I personally faced and experienced how difficult it is to be isolated in this critical situation. To prepare for exams in such an atmosphere is simply not possible. Due to this mental agony, I am not able to concentrate to study for the exams. I fear that I may not perform well in the exams and risk losing an academic year because of an unfortunate incident. It is simply not possible to face everything simultaneously: the health problem, studies, the exam anxiety, and the social stigma," the junior doctor wrote in his letter.

Soundararajan, a medical doctor by profession, is also the Chancellor of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) that conducts the exams. Meanwhile, the Healthcare Reforms Doctors' Association (HRDA) has also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Telangana High Court seeking direction to the government to postpone the exams. Around 1,400 postgraduates from across the state are going to appear for their final exams between June 20 and 29.

The petitioner said that the government is unnecessarily rushing to conduct the exams and that the exams could wait until the pandemic is over. It pointed out that out of the 1,405 doctors/PG final year students set to take the exams, 663 are from colleges located within the Greater Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, the COVID-19 hotspots in the state.