Study abroad aspirants from COVID batch off to a rocky start, again

New Delhi: Two years of online learning, delayed board exams and their results and now the wait for visas coupled with last minute flight fares, the misery of study abroad aspirants who passed Class 12 this year is far from over.

School closures due to pandemic was just the beginning of the “stressful” phase which will set the tone of their careers, say parents of Indian students from “COVID batches” planning to head to foreign destinations for higher studies.

“The batch has been ‘jinxed’ from the beginning. First the students were grounded inside homes for two years waiting for the schools to reopen. Then the board exams were split up in two terms, a first experiment of its type. There was no clarity on how results will be computed. The second term was already delayed than usual schedule and delayed result caused further chaos for us,” one of the students, Radha Osan, said. Osan plans to study psychology at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

“Then the certificates from board took weeks to come despite the result announcement. All this while, we were on hooks arranging for visa, last minute flight bookings, provisional loans, and of course a plan B. We thankfully have all in order now but there are just two weeks for me to leave and I am yet to get final clearance from the UBC. To not have everything ready at least two weeks before I leave is very stressful” she added.

In 2021, over 13.24 lakh students from India went abroad for higher studies with maximum of them heading to the USA (4.65 lakh), followed by Canada (1.83 lakh), the UAE (1.64 lakh) and Australia (1.09 lakh), among others.

Usually, the board exams are conducted in February-March every year and the results are announced by May.