Thousands take Uzbek university tests in open air

More than 100,000 students in Uzbekistan took university entrance exams under open skies on Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic clouded the beginning of the academic year with uncertainty.


In the capital Tashkent, students took tests in the botanical gardens, a park and a football stadium, with police securing the locations. 


The students -- one batch of more than a million who will take the tests this month -- trooped through disinfection tunnels and submitted to temperature checks as officials handed out masks and gloves.


Elvira Urayeva, the director of the state test centre, said the students would learn the results of their exams the following day.


"The tables are spaced two metres apart, we are observing all the sanitary norms," Urayeva told AFP as she watched over 2,500 students inside a stadium that is home to FC Pakhtakor, a well-known football club whose name translates a "cotton pickers". 


The academic term for first year university students begins in October with officials so far indicating that they will attend classes. 


For older students, courses have already begun in an online format.


Student Oisha Akhmedova said that a harsh lockdown eased in May and June but reinforced in July amid a spike in virus cases had interrupted her preparations for the exam, as she was not able to train with a tutor.


"I prepared for the test using books and online resources. The questions in the test were not too difficult for me," Akhmedova said as she made her way out of a testing centre in city centre park.


Bobur Toshtemirov, a student who had just finished taking his exam in the Pakhatkor stadium, said he hoped that he and his fellow students would not be spending too much of the academic year at home. 


"I am tired of online," Toshtemirov said. "I want to learn with real life friends and go to real life lectures."


Uzbekistan, a country of 33 million, has registered over 42,000 coronavirus cases and 326 deaths.